Study Finds TaperGuard

Jan-Paul Mulier, M.D., Ph.D., recently presented data from the study at the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists PostGraduate Assembly (PGA) in Anesthesiology, held in New York City. The study investigated the outcomes of patients intubated with either a TaperGuard tube or conventional high-volume, low-pressure cuff during laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery. In the study, not one patient intubated with a TaperGuard tube (n = 11) had microaspiration secondary to leakage of fluid past the inflated cuff. In contrast, more than 40 percent of patients intubated with a conventional high-volume, low-pressure cuff (n = 9) exhibited clear evidence of microaspiration.