Intubation Procedures: For patients with obstructed airways or difficulty breathing, intubation is a lifesaver. Roughly 50 million intubation procedures are performed each year. In this procedure, a physician or emergency medical service (EMS) worker guides an endotracheal tube down the airway of the patient to maintain the ability to breathe. Especially for patients with obstructions or difficult anatomies, intubation can be difficult to perform. Operators must use laryngoscope blades to lift patients' jaws to visualize their vocal cords and airways while navigating endotracheal tubes down the airways. While most experienced clinicians can navigate these challenges, it can be difficult, especially in settings outside a hospital, or for inexperienced operators.
Procedures in the Field: In the field, when procedures are performed in uncontrolled settings by emergency medical services (EMS), rates of failure and/or complication are higher, more than 20%. The consequences are profound; many patients require intubation for stabilizing in order to be transported to the hospital. These failed field intubations can yield undesirable outcomes like prolonged hypoxia and subsequent brain injury, hemodynamic instability, injury to the upper airway, aspiration pneumonia, and even death. There is a need for better tools that allow less experienced intubators to quickly and easily perform successful intubation procedures in the field.
Semiautomated Tools for Intubation: In order to address these challenges, our lab is developing a novel tool for semiautomated intubation. These devices utilize ultrathin soft flexible actuators that deflect to guide themselves as they are introduced into the patient airway. Because these actuators are made from soft flexible materials that are pneumatically actuated, they are intrinsically safe and can navigate the patient’s airway with minimal risk. By integrating smart sensors into the surface of these actuators, devices can be fabricated that respond to stimuli during procedures, letting them detect tissue contact, and track gradients in carbon dioxide (CO2), aiding their navigation down the patient airway.