Electronic Stethoscope Use During Intubation in Full Personal Protective Equipment

After the pandemic outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in many countries, the number of critical ill patients are rapidly growing. Critical ill COVID-19 patients inevitably require endotracheal intubation for ventilator support. The chest X-rays, ultrasound, and stethoscope are three tools that can detect whether or not bronchial intubation has occurred. Auscultation by using the stethoscope is the routine first-line tool for this purpose. However, clinician who wears the full personal protective equipment (PPE) is very difficult to perform adequate auscultation with conventional stethoscope. In addition, the X-ray machines and ultrasound are very difficult to enter the negative-pressure isolation room and may raise the risks of infection spread. By using the electronic stethoscope amplified by the Bluetooth speaker, the clinician with full PPE may still hear the proper lung sound. In addition, electronic stethoscope has a good portability that can be easily brought into the isolation room. For patients undergoing surgery with general anesthesia, endotracheal tube is often mandatory and auscultation with stethoscope is routinely applied. Therefore, the investigators can simulate the circumstance that clinician with a full PPE to use the electronic stethoscope for confirmation of the proper endotracheal tube position. In addition, patients undergoing thoracic surgery require the single-lung ventilation which could be a proper simulation scenario for detection of bronchial intubation by using electronic stethoscope for clinicians with PPE.