It enters thin and widens once it reaches its destination. It is the device designed by Fraido, a Trentino startup, to make intubation safer, i.e. the insertion of a tube into the trachea (the canal that brings air to the lungs) to make those who cannot breathe on their own. With Covid we have all heard about it, but in hospitals it is practiced every day, in the operating room as well as in the emergency room.
When there is time to study the patient’s anatomy, everything usually goes smoothly. Especially in an emergency, however, the passage may turn out to be narrower or more tortuous than expected, due to a foreign body, a tumor, a trauma or a particular conformation of the airway. In these cases, you can first introduce a flexible guide and slide the tube along it: if it is too wide, remove it and try again with a smaller one, until you find the most suitable one.
Every unsuccessful attempt can injure the trachea and lengthens the time in which air does not reach the lungs: there is a risk of hypoxia, a lack of oxygen that endangers the brain. How delicate the maneuver is was shown by a study coordinated by researchers from the University of Milan-Bicocca on approximately 3 thousand serious patients hospitalized in 29 countries: almost one in two had at least one serious complication, mostly sudden drops in blood pressure, and it happened more often when the first attempt was unsuccessful.
The idea was born in the ward. Antonio Maria Vizioli, emergency room nurse, has seen that operation repeated many times. Together with Elia Fregonese, a materials engineer who came from the space sector, he patented a mechanism which, with a command, varies the diameter of the duct already inserted. «This allows you to use just one device», explains Vizioli. In short, you no longer change the tube: you change its size.
Fraido’s invention will not solve all difficult intubations: in many cases the problem is seeing the entrance to the trachea, rather than passing the tube through it.
The project is still in development. The first test bed will be a cadaver lab, where practice is carried out on bodies donated to science: there anesthetists and nurses will measure how long it takes to intubate with the new tube and with those used today. If the comparison is favourable, the certifications required for medical devices and mass production will arrive.
Only then will he be able to enter the ward.
After all, medicine uses many other ducts that must be inserted into the body. For this reason, the company has also patented the same mechanism for catheters and drains.
