Evaluation of performance of cuffed and uncuffed endotracheal tubes in a paediatric population: A randomised controlled trial.

Having an operation is very safe for most patients and we wish to do research to improve patient care. To ensure the safe delivery of oxygen and anaesthesia gases to the child, the anaesthetist will insert a tube into the child’s mouth. Then the child’s lungs can be inflated and deflated by these gases. There are two tubes which can be used for this purpose. Both look very similar, except one has an inflatable balloon on the end. Both devices do the same thing and have been independently shown to be safe for use in children. However, a direct comparison between the two tubes is lacking in the paediatric population on how easily the lungs can be inflated. Therefore, the first aim of this study is to show if there are differences in inflating the child’s lungs. The second aim is to show there are no differences in the potential injury to the child’s throat from either tube type.