Educational Intervention Can Improve the Pilot Balloon Palpation Method of Tracheal Tube Cuff Pressure Monitoring: An Experimental Study.

Background: Considerable morbidity is attributable to inappropriate tracheal cuff pressure. An earlier study undertaken in our hospital revealed that a normal cuff pressure of 20-30 cm H₂O was achieved in only 6% of intubated patients using subjective estimation methods.

Objective: To determine whether a training intervention could improve the accuracy of the subjective estimation method in our tracheal cuff monitoring.

Materials and methods: A 1-day training session was conducted in April 2022 for our anaesthesia providers. The cuffs of different sizes of endotracheal tubes were inflated to 25 cm H₂O, and each staff was requested to feel the turgor of the pilot balloon. Subsequently, anaesthesia providers used pilot balloon palpation for the regulation of the tracheal cuff pressure in consecutive patients undergoing general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation. During each intubation, a manometer was used to crosscheck the inflated cuff pressure objectively. The incidence of post-operative sore throat was also evaluated. The obtained outcomes were compared with pre-intervention data obtained from an earlier study conducted in the health facility from October 2020 to September 2021. Significant differences were considered when P < 0.05.

Results: The mean tracheal cuff pressure was improved post-intervention (49.2 ± 24.1 cm H₂O versus 77.1 ± 31.1 cm H₂O; P < 0.001). A significantly higher proportion of tracheal cuffs (20%; 31/156) were inflated within the normal range compared to 6% (9/141) prior to the intervention (P = 0.003). Fewer patients developed post-operative sore throat following the educational intervention (32.8%; 41/125) versus pre-intervention (47.7%; 53/111; P = 0.019).

Conclusion: The educational intervention improved the safety of tracheal cuff management, which could positively impact airway management, especially in poor resource settings without cuff manometers.