Background Airway opening is crucial in management, and failure can lead to respiratory failure and death. Current manual methods have high failure rates, our team developed a device that automatically and precisely opens the patient's airway, replacing manual techniques. Objective To explore whether a new airway opening device with automatic position adjustment can effectively shorten the time for the tracheoscope to enter the airway while maintaining the airway open compared with the manual method of opening the airway. Methods A multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled trial involved 400 adult patients undergoing bronchoscopy in three tertiary hospitals in China. Patients were randomly assigned to a control group using the head-up jaw lift method or to instrument test groups using the device at an angle of position (PA) of 90°, 95°, and 100°. Results A total of 357 patients completed the trial with a 100% success rate of bronchoscope entry. Median entry times for tracheoscope to enter the airway were 39.00 s for the control group, 33.00 s for PA 90° (P = 0.007), 31.00 s for PA 95° (P = 0.004), and 32.00 s for PA 100° (P = 0.005). Conclusions The new device can safely and effectively open the airway, shorten tracheoscope entry time, and maintain an open airway accurately.
Sun et al. (2026) studied this question.