EVALUATING EFFECTIVENESS OF WARMING ENDOTRA-CHEAL TUBE IN BLIND NASOTRACHEAL INTUBATION IN MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY

Objective: To compare the intubation time, number of attempts to intuba -tion and complications of BNTIbyusing normal ETTs against those softened by warming them with water at 50°C. Methodology: Eighty adult patients both male and female scheduled to un -dergo elective maxillofacial surgery under general anesthesia (GA) were ran-domly divided into two groups; Group A: BNTI carried out in patients using ETT without warming, Group B: BNTI using ETT warmed and softened with water at 50°C for 5 minutes. The intubation time, number of attempts to in-tubation and complications of BNTI in both the groups were recorded and compared. Results: We found that BNTI in group B required lesser time and lesser num -ber of attempts for intubation, with low incidences of complications as com-pared to group A. We found that the most frequent position of nasotracheal tube was tracheal followed by esophageal and anterior positions. Conclusion: ETT softened by warm water facilitated BNTIwith reduced fre-quency and severity of observed complications like epistaxis, bronchospasm, laryngospasm, painful nose and post-operative sore throat.