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. 2017 Apr 4;17(1):54.
doi: 10.1186/s12871-017-0343-1.

Orogastric tube insertion using the new gastric tube guide: first experiences from a manikin study

Christian Alflen  1 , Marc Kriege  2 , Irene Schmidtmann  3 , Rüdiger R Noppens  4 , Tim Piepho  2
Affiliations

Orogastric tube insertion using the new gastric tube guide: first experiences from a manikin study

Christian Alflen et al. BMC Anesthesiol. .

Abstract

Background: Orogastric tube placement is a common procedure routinely used in clinical anesthesiology and intensive care medicine. Nevertheless high failure rates and severe complications have been reported. We conducted this study to evaluate if the usage of the new gastric tube guide would speed up the placement of orogastric tubes and ease the procedure.

Methods: Thirty one professionals were given a hands-on-training in orogastric tube placement in a simulation manikin without and with the gastric tube guide. Afterwards they performed both methods in randomized order. We recorded the placement time, counted the required attempts and asked the participants to rate their experience with both methods.

Results: The median placement time using the gastric tube guide was 14 s compared to 25 s without the device. In addition all participants were able to place the orogastric tube when using the gastric tube guide compared to 26/31 (84%) without it. Furthermore 26/31 (84%) users preferred the gastric tube guide over the standard method.

Conclusion: Our results show that using the gastric tube guide to place orogastric tubes in a manikin led to a significant shorter placement time and a higher overall success rate.

Keywords: Gastric tube guide; Nasogastric tube; Orogastric tube.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Gastric tube guide - the gastric tube guide is 33 cm in length and has an inner diameter of 7.5 MM
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Manikin with the gastric tube guide – (a) Experimental set-up with the manikin and an orogastric tube placed through a gastric tube guide; (b) Detail of the gastric tube guide with graduation marks (cm)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Probability of success depending on the required time – All participants were able to place the gastric tube with the GTG, in contrast to 26 out of 31 without the device (standard). The median time required for successful orogastric intubation was 25 (95% CI [14; 65]) seconds without and 14 (95% CI [11; 15]) seconds with the GTG [HR =5.4, p < 0.0001]
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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