Bougie vs stylet

Shishkabob

Shishkabob

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So who's agencies use bougies vs stylets?



We carry an adult and pedi bougie, along with the normal stylets in the bag, but we are to use the bougie on every intubation attempt.


The first time I truly played around with bougie for any decent length of time was at this agency. They take some getting used to, but everyone I know swears by them (if not AT them the first time the damn thing whacks you in the head repeatedly during an intubation)
 
We don't have bougies at my current service but the one service I ran with did. They were only used for difficult airways such as airway edema, etc. where it may be easier to get the bougie through and then slip the ETT over it.

I never heard of anyone using them for primary.
 
Linuss said:
So who's agencies use bougies vs stylets?



We carry an adult and pedi bougie, along with the normal stylets in the bag, but we are to use the bougie on every intubation attempt.


The first time I truly played around with bougie for any decent length of time was at this agency. They take some getting used to, but everyone I know swears by them (if not AT them the first time the damn thing whacks you in the head repeatedly during an intubation)
Click to expand...

Bougies are pretty nice toys. LOL..the I remember being stung in the face a couple of times ^_^
 
Bougie is a good aid. I am aware of services requiring it instead of standard stylet.
 
It's a little awkward to use at first, but using it instead of a stylet has done phenomenal things for both our overall and first pass success rates.
 
Bougies aren't allowed by my protocols yet, so stylette it is.
 
usalsfyre said:
It's a little awkward to use at first, but using it instead of a stylet has done phenomenal things for both our overall and first pass success rates.
Click to expand...

because size matters ;) Everyone knows that despite the propaganda it doesn't :)
 
I use stylettes routinely, mostly because it vets very hot here and ETTs can go all floppy in the heat, making them hard to insert. We also have bougie which we can use whenever we want in whatever way we want.
Personally I don't use them routinely (although I always have them ready)
My rationale is that as part of a difficult/failed airway, one of the most important things to do is to change some part of what we are doing. A bougie is good for that and may make passing the tube easier. If I have used the bougie every time when I come across a difficult airway I am then left with one less tool to use or change. Tha said if it looks like a terrible airway anyway I may go ahead and use it straight away.

It all depends really...
 
We dropped our stylets a few months ago and went to bougies stricktly, since then we have seen our First time intubation success rate rise to the 90th percentile, and even higher with second attempt. We RSI at our service and I cannot tell you how many difficult airways that the bougie has saved my rear end on, even more so when it comes to the situation of blind intubations( Poor mallampati, vomit in airway, blood, etc...)
 
Anyone using the combo sylet/bougie? I saw them at EMS Today and thought they were great, couldn't get my employer to buy them though. :(

Happy
 
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