Comparison Between Ultrasonography and Capnography in the Assessment of Endotracheal Tube Placement after General Anesthesia

Abstract

Background: Verification of endotracheal tube placement is of vital importance and can prove rapidly fatal.Because the placement of unrecognized esophageal tubes is so obviously detrimental, several instruments andtechniques have been investigated to get rid of such fatal complications. While there are numerous methods anddevices utilized for verifying endotracheal tube placement, none have been shown to be completely reliable. Inthe present study, we compared the upper airway ultrasound with capnography so as to assess endotracheal tubeplacements rapidly and accurately following general anesthesia (GA).Aim of the study: The aim is to examine how much fast and accurate the ultrasound in comparison withcapnography for assessing the endotracheal tube placement after general anesthesia.Patients and methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on (100) patients requiring trachealintubation under general anesthesia by using ultrasonography for confirming the endotracheal tube positioncompared to capnography.Results: Significant differences were found in the meantime for the group (A) between ultrasound (US) andcapnography. But in the group (B), there was no significant difference between means of time for confirmation byU/S and capnography. A P-value less than (0.05) was considered significant.Conclusion: In confirming the position of the tracheal tube, the real-time US was shown to be similar tocapnography in accuracy.