Patients' experience following awake and asleep fibreoptic intubation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Comparison of Patients’ Experience Following Awake and Asleep Fibreoptic Intubation.
IRAS ID
247165
Contact name
Cyprian Mendonca
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 3 days
Research summary
This study is about patients’ experience regarding a part of anaesthetic care, known as fibreoptic intubation. In an operation under general anaesthetic, a patient’s airway needs to be maintained safely. This entails intubation – inserting a tube into the windpipe to enable patients to breathe. Often this is done using a flexible fibreoptic scope (a camera device) in patients undergoing operation around neck and mouth region (head and neck surgery).
But if the anaesthetist is concerned that this will be difficult, the safest option is to perform awake fibre-optic intubation (AFOI). Here the nose, throat and wind pipe are first numbed using local anaesthetic, often with mild sedation to help with patient comfort. This allows the patient to maintain their own airway and breathing until a tube has been successfully inserted into their windpipe. Soon after securing the airway, the patient is put to sleep. This procedure is called AFOI.
In a situation where there is no difficulty, or the degree of difficulty is expected is mild, anaesthetist may choose to place the breathing tube using flexible fibreoptic scope after the patient is put to sleep. This procedure is known as asleep fibreoptic intubation.The aim of this research is to investigate whether there are significant differences in patients’ experience during AFOI and asleep fibreoptic intubation.
A member of the research team will approach those patients (on ward) who underwent fibreoptic intubation either asleep or awake. The patient will be given the Participant Information Sheet which will provide information about the study. The patient will be given adequate amount of time to decide their participation and will be given the opportunity to ask any questions they may have. If they agree to participate, the member of the research team will obtain written consent.
Consenting patients will then be given a specifically designed questionnaire. The questionnaire includes a mixture of free response answers and numerical rating scales will be used. The member of the research team approaching the patient will be blinded to the intubation procedure. Based on the research findings, the study aims to develop appropriate recommendations to improve patient safety.
REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/WM/0192
Date of REC Opinion
31 Jul 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion