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The use of bromothymol blue and sodium thiopentone to confirm tracheal intubation
Author(s) -
DEAN V. S.,
DINGLEY J.,
VAUGHAN R. S.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
anaesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.839
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2044
pISSN - 0003-2409
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2044.1996.tb07649.x
Subject(s) - bromothymol blue , medicine , tracheal tube , tracheal intubation , capnography , anesthesia , precipitation , laryngoscopy , intubation , tube (container) , chromatography , waste management , meteorology , chemistry , physics , engineering
Summary The possibility of using chemical changes to confirm correct tracheal tube placement was investigated with a view to their use in developing countries where more sophisticated methods are unavailable. The effect of bubbling expired gases through a 10% solution of bromothymol blue and a 0.25% solution of thiopentone led to chemical changes producing, in the case of bromothymol blue, a colour change and in that of thiopentone, precipitation, probably due to a change in pH caused by carbon dioxide. We also discovered that the time to precipitation of the thiopentone could be greatly reduced if it was mixed with a precise quantity of lignocaine. These simple end points can reliably confirm the correct placement of a tracheal tube at least as rapidly as the correct use of capnography.