Does a Nasal Airway Facilitate Nasotracheal Intubation or Not? A Prospective, Randomized, and Controlled Study.

PURPOSE: Nasotracheal intubation (NTI) is generally preferred for maxillofacial surgery to provide a more suitable and wide surgery area for the surgeons. The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether using a nasal airway just before the NTI may facilitate NTI or not.

METHODS: This prospective, randomized, and controlled study was performed on patients who were admitted to our hospital for maxillofacial surgery. In group 1, a nasal airway was used just before the NTI during mask ventilation, and patients in the group were ventilated without nasal airway. Airway group was the primary predictor of the study. The NTI duration was the primary outcome variable, and the number of attempts was the secondary outcome variable. Difficulty of ventilation and complications were the other variables that were recorded.

RESULTS: A total of 70 patients were included in the study and divided into 2 groups. There was no statistically significant relationship between the duration of NTI and other variables, but the significance value for sternomental distance, ventilation difficulty, and epistaxis was P < .10. The NTI duration (the primary outcome variable) and the number of attempts (the secondary outcome variable) are statistically lower in the nasal airway group (group 1) than the control group (group 2). Ventilation difficulty was significantly higher in group 2 when compared with group 1 (P = .04). The model and regression coefficients for both variables are statistically significant in terms of duration of NTI and number of attempt values that they were lower in nasal airway group than the control group. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of complications (P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS: The present study has shown that inserting a nasal airway into the nostril just before the NTI may facilitate the intubation process by preparing the nasal passage.