Intubation is the injection of a tube into the trachea

Health is the highest value of a person. In some cases, operations are required to maintain health. With the use of general anesthesia , intubation is necessary - this is the introduction of a special tube into the trachea. Despite all the simplicity, this is also a kind of operation involving risks and technical difficulties.

Purpose of intubation

Intubation (which means this manipulation, will be described in the article) can also be used at the prehospital stage in the provision of emergency care.

Intubation is able to provide:

• Holding the patient's breathing, in particular, controlled and auxiliary;
• Normal patency in the respiratory tract, regardless of the patient's position;
• Absence of risk of suffocation due to ingestion of vomit, mucus, blood, foreign objects and spasm of ligaments;
• The possibility of removing foreign bodies from the bronchi and trachea;
• The possibility of spreading the lungs;
• Improvement of the conditions for the elimination of pulmonary edema.

Intubation is performed (this is the insertion of the tube into the trachea) with difficulty breathing as a result of pulmonary edema, severe poisoning, respiratory failure, but for violations of the structure of the facial part of the skull, inflammation and other injuries in the cervical spine and cervical spine, this procedure can not be performed.

Instruments for intubation

There is a certain set of tools that are used to perform intubation (this is an operation to facilitate breathing). This requires:

• Intubation tubes different in size, external diameter, length, with and without cuff, with one or two lumens (for children, no-manicure tubes are used);
• Laryngoscope with straight and curved blades: the composition includes a handle, into which a battery is inserted, and a blade with a bulb (blades can be changed quickly if necessary);
• Anaesthesiological forceps (have a curved shape);
• Conductor - a thin metal rod, which, despite the material used, is mild (necessary in difficult cases of intubation);
• A local anesthetic sprayer (rarely used, because most often intubation is the process of inserting the tube into the trachea, is carried out in emergency cases when the patient is under general anesthesia or unconscious).

Types of intubation

Depending on the purpose of this medical manipulation, intubation of the lungs (which is described above) is of two types:

• Orotracheal - tube into the trachea is inserted through the mouth;
• Nasotracheal - introduction of the intubation tube through the nose (in this case, the size of the tubes should be slightly smaller).

Separately, it is necessary to distinguish tracheostomy, but this operation only remotely resembles intubation, since it is carried out by anesthesiologists using a different technology, but the goal is almost the same - providing airway patency.

Technology of intubation of the lungs

Intubation is the introduction of a tube into the trachea. It is carried out in two ways, depending on whether the patient is conscious or not. In the first case, local anesthesia is performed. The patient needs to breathe deeply, while inhaling the tube through the vocal chink. The doctor, at the same time, ensures that the tube gets into the trachea, and not into the esophagus.

When unconscious, the patient uses the method of direct laryngoscopy. In this case, the head should be maximally unbent, it is better to put a roller under it. The doctor opens his mouth to the patient, conducts the laryngoscope blade on the back of the tongue, thereby pushing it to the left, and then moves the laryngoscope to the trachea. After this, a tube is inserted on inhalation.

Intubation of the intestine

There is such a thing as intubation intestine, or intraoperative bowel decompression. This manipulation is carried out to eliminate intestinal contents. There are three types of intubation of the intestine:

• Nasogastric;
• Retrograde through the rectum;
• Retrograde through intestinal fistula.

Intubation of the small intestine through appendicitis is also performed to prevent or treat postoperative paresis of patients.

Special probes are used for this purpose, which can be single-channel, two-channel and multichannel, but the first two are most often used.

Like any other operation, intubation (this is a manipulation to facilitate breathing) can have complications. Most often this is suffocation, damage to teeth and mucous membranes, spasms. However, if the whole procedure is carried out according to the rules, there will be no complications, and the life of the patient will be saved.