Combitube

Today I was given the opportunity to attend a lecture given by the man who invented the combitube. You might ask, "What exactly is a combitube, and why would I care?" Well, the combitube is an airway device that is blindly inserted into the esophagus which then occludes the esophagus and also occludes just above the opening to the trachea. Between the two ballons that you blow up, there are a bunch of holes that allow for ventilation. It's pretty useful especially for EMT's in emergency situations because it's supposedly very user friendly. You just shove it down the patient's throat and 95% of the time you're in the exact right place. Just to give you an idea of where exactly that tube is sitting, here is a cut away view.

There are several upsides to its use, including the apparent lack of the need for pre-anesthetic to tolerate its placement in extreme emergency as seen in the video below.

I especially like the look of panic on his face when he realizes he forgot to deflate the second balloon. You gotta love YouTube.