Intubation Performance with Stylet and Preloaded Bougie for Rapid Sequence Intubation in Patients Undergoing General Anaesthesia: A Randomised Clinical Trial

Introduction: Rapid sequence induction requires quick and single attempt intubation to secure airway without any untoward complications. As the number of attempts increase, risk of desaturation and aspiration increase which is potentially life threatening.In such circumstances, miscalculation may cost loss of time which may prove fatal.Various adjuncts and techniques have been devised to prevent such calamities. Aim: To compare ease of intubation with angulated stylet versus distally preloaded bougie for rapid sequence intubation in elective general anaesthesia procedures. Materials and Methods: This randomised trial was conducted in 100 patients belonging to 18-60 years of age from November 2019 to October 2020. Patients were intubated using rapid sequence including cricoid pressure by either styletted endotracheal tube (Group S) or distally preloaded bougie (Group B), for surgeries performed under general anaesthesia. The primary outcome was to determine mean time to intubation (TTI) and number of attempts, while secondary outcomes were haemodynamic responses to intubation and complications. Data comparison between independent groups in this normally distributed data was done using student - t test while intragroup analysis was done using chi-square test. Results: A total of hundred patients were randomized into two groups- group S (mean age: 41.12 years) and group B (mean age: 37.34 years), of 50 patients each. Number of intubation attempts with stylet were single in 82%, two in 18% cases while with preloaded bougie, it was 80% and 14%, respectively (p-value=0.196). Time to intubation was 22.16 seconds (group S) versus 33.78 seconds (group B) (p-value <0.05). The haemodynamic assessments revealed that tachycardia,hypertension and increased End tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) was seen for 10 minutes immediately post induction in both the groups,though the intergroup difference was non significant. The incidence of sore throat was higher with stylet than bougie, though non-significant (p-value=0.118). Conclusion: Stylet should be preferred for ease of intubation in rapid sequence inductions. However, the insertion and removal of stylet must be done cautiously to prevent postoperative sore throat.