A Novel Airway Opening Device with Automatic Position Adjustment

Airway opening is a key technique in the implementation of airway management. Based on the airway opening theory of CPR and tracheal intubation, we developed a new device to replace manual methods to open the airway of patients and maintain airway patency automatically and accurately. This device is a novel, automatic, non-invasive, simple, multifunctional, and widely used airway opening device, which can measure three important values of angle, adjust the lifting height of the upper body of patients, place patients in an optimized position accurately, maintain airway patency, protect the cervical spine, and dynamically display the values of angle, height, working speed, and time. Moreover, the device can be used in the clinical practices of bronchoscopy, tracheal intubation, difficult intubation, and CPR, which can free the hands of health care staff, alleviate their fatigue, and compensate for the incorrect, inadequate, or ineffective operation in the manual airway opening methods. We conducted a preliminary manikin study to evaluate the effectiveness of the device in airway opening and found that the device has good efficacy on airway opening.