Nasotracheal Intubation With VL vs DL in Infants Trial

The primary objectives of the study are to compare the nasotracheal intubation (NTI) first attempt success rate using VL vs. DL in infants 0-365 days of age presenting for cardiothoracic surgery and cardiac catheterizations.

Secondary Objectives include the number of attempts for successful intubation; Incidence of failed NTI (conversion to oral intubation); Incidence of failure to intubate with assigned device; Incidence of complications over all attempts including non-severe and severe complications; Incidence of 1st-attempt complications; Need for cricoid pressure or external laryngeal manipulation, need for adjunct- (Magill forceps), rescue of one technique of the other, Percent of glottic opening (POGO) score less than 100%, intubation sequence exceeding 60 seconds and interaction analysis of weight group (i.e. ≤ median weight & > median weight (kg)), and by clinicians' experience with cardiac anesthesiology (i.e. Permanent full time team members & rotating team members) on the association between treatment and outcomes

Study Design: this is a prospective, randomized, multi-center parallel group trial

Setting/Participants: This will be a multi-center study. The target population will be infants 0-365 days of age scheduled for elective cardiothoracic surgery or cardiac catheterization requiring general anesthesia with NTI.

Study Interventions and Measures: The study intervention will be a 1:1 randomization to perform tracheal intubation with the Storz C-Mac Video Videolaryngoscopy (VL) or the Standard Direct Laryngoscope (DL).

Main study outcome measures are as follows:

• The first intubation attempt success rate with each device
• The number of attempts for successful intubation with each device
• Complications associated with intubation

Inclusion criteria

• Males or females age 0 -365 days
• Scheduled for elective cardiothoracic surgery or cardiac catheterization procedures lasting longer than 30 minutes under general anesthesia where nasotracheal intubation will be performed by an anesthesiology clinician
• Plan to use a neuromuscular blocking drug prior to intubation as standard of care
• Parental/guardian permission (informed consent)

For clinician participants:

• Anesthesia attending, anesthesia fellows, anesthesia resident, Anesthesia Assistant (AA) or CRNA

Exclusion criteria

• Less than 36 weeks gestation
• Less than 2 kg
• History of difficult intubation
• History of abnormal airway
• Predictive of difficult intubation upon physical examination
• Preoperative endotracheal tube or tracheostomy
• Emergency cases