Cervical Spine Biomechanics During Endotracheal Intubation
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01369381. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
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Official title
Intubation Mechanics of the Stable and Unstable Cervical Spine
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Current methods for endotracheal intubation in the presence of cervical spine (c-spine) instability are not evidence-based. This is so because the relationships between the forces applied during intubation (by the laryngoscope) and the resulting c-spine movement have not yet been quantitatively characterized. As a result, with the current level of knowledge, it is not known, and it is not possible to predict, which types of c-spine instability have the greatest risk of cervical spinal cord injury with intubation. This shortcoming makes it impossible to know which intubation devices and techniques are likely to be safest in the presence of c-spine instability. To address this critical lack of knowledge, the overarching purpose of the proposed research is to: 1) quantitatively relate c-spine movement that results from the forces applied to the peri-airway tissues during intubation (force-motion relationships), and 2) use these data to develop a mathematical model of the c-spine that will predict which types of c-spine instability result in the greatest amount of abnormal c-spine motion and associated spinal cord compression during intubation. This clinical study will utilize laryngoscope blades that are instrumented with a high resolution pressure mapping system to make high-resolution measurements of the forces and pressures of intubation while making simultaneous measurements of c-spine motion. In this study, study subjects will be intubated using both a conventional (Macintosh) laryngoscope and an alternative (Airtraq) laryngoscope. By using two different laryngoscopes, we, the investigators, will introduce forces of differing magnitudes and distributions to peri-airway tissues. The Airtraq does not require a direct line of sight to visualize the vocal cords, and among the various new alternative laryngoscopes it is the only one that has been shown to result in 30-50% less cervical motion than a conventional (Macintosh) laryngoscope. Accordingly, we hypothesize 1) 30-50% less force will be applied with the Airtraq laryngoscope than with the conventional (Macintosh) laryngoscope and 2) 30-50% less c-spine motion will occur with the Airtraq. By studying (intubating) each subject twice, any differences in the c-spine force-motion relationships between devices will be due to the devices themselves. By studying each subject twice, we can account for (and eliminate) differences among study subjects in c-spine biomechanical properties.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01369381
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 14 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 80 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Nov 30, 2011
- Primary completion
- Jun 30, 2012
- Completion
- Jun 30, 2012
- Last update posted
- Aug 6, 2012
2011 – 2012
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics | Iowa City | Iowa | 52242 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01369381, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Aug 6, 2012 · Synced Sep 4, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01369381 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.