"Spray-as-you-go" medical technique for awake intubation using a combination of an epidural catheter and the OptiScope in a patient with Ludwig's angina - A case report -

Abstract

Difficult airway intubation is one of the most frequent causes of complications in the operating room; therefore, a difficult airway is always of a particular concern to an anesthesiologist [1]. Deep neck infection, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and facial trauma surgery are common causes of a difficult airway. A flexible fiber-optic intubation scope with an external video monitor was used in the past for intubation of a difficult airway; this medical technique is useful in patients whose tracheas are difficult to intubate [2]. However, the insertion of a tube over the flexible fiber-optic scope is technically difficult in some patients [3]; thus, video-assisted de-vices are regarded as one of the solutions for this problem [4]. With the advancement of medical technology, several types of video-assisted equipment have been developed for intubation. Video-assisted intubating stylets, such as the Opti-Scope ® (Clarus Medical, USA), are increasingly being applied