Lighted Stylets

[BURNSEMS]

Our First Responder Dept is Looking at lighted stylets for future use pending approval from our Med Control Doctor, Does anyone currently use these and what are your thoughts Good and Bad

[Romania]

Saw them in tape & chart, look cool but very expensive. Drawbacks are they don't work on the obeese or very thin patients. The only benefit I see is that they help you CONFIRM tube placement, I rarly use a stylet and like a flexible tube. I like End-tidal CO2 and tubecheck-b for confimation of tube placement in addition to Breath sounds. Until they go down in price I could find better things to spend money on.

Just my two-cents, if you start using them let me know how they work and how much your getting them for.

------------------
Alan Romania, CEP
romania@uswest.net
IAFF Local 3449

My Opinions do not reflect the opnions of the IAFF or Local 3449.

[Weruj1]

bump ////////// we dont use them .......

[ALS142]

Fantastic piece of equipment. There's nothing like seeing that little light passing down the trachea from the outside. So cool!

Due to the expense, my service doesn't purchase them though. But, if the patient is worked at the hospital, and they open the crash cart in the ED, since the patient is charged for the whole crash cart, no matter what is used, the crews are allowed to take whatever they want out of it afterwards. And they always grab the lighted stylets.

[Dave1983]

Weve had them for years. Dont recall ever seeing one used on a patient.

[vfddoc]

I like the fiberoptic type. I remember seeing a chest film which showed that the little bulb had come detached from the end of the bulb-type wand and was lodged down the right mainstem bronchus. Ouch! Doc

[parafire81]

You can now buy disposable ones that cost less than $10 a piece. However, I have never had a patient where I even considered using it. I have too many other tricks to try first.

[Medic818]

My services utilize both disposable & non-disposable stylettes. We, however, utilize them as an ADJUNCT to achieve successful OTI, not as the sole method to achieve such.
Tread lightly (no pun intended) with this one...I have found that a successful intubation can not be easily achieved with a lighted stylette alone (one of our in-house studies on a manaquin showed a 0/53 rate, using a lighted stylette alone to achieve OTI).