Anaesthesia
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The Difficult Airway Society 2015 guidelines for management of unanticipated difficulties in tracheal intubation in adults have generated much discussion regarding Plan D: emergency front-of-neck access with a scalpel-bougie cricothyroidotomy technique. There is concern that this technique may not provide an adequate pathway for the bougie and subsequently the tracheal tube, especially in obese patients with deeper airway structures. This could lead to the formation of a false passage, trauma and failure. ⋯ There were no statistical differences in tracheal trauma (p = 0.490), ease of use (p = 0.220) and device preference (p = 0.240). This novel cricothyroidotomy introducer has shown promising results in securing the airway in an emergency front-of-neck access situation. With robust training, this introducer could potentially be complementary to the scalpel-bougie cricothyroidotomy technique.