Laryngoscope plastic blades in scheduled general anesthesia patients: a comparative randomized study.

To compare two brands of disposable plastic laryngoscope blades, Vital View plastic blades and Heine XP plastic blades, with the reusable Heine Classic+ Macintosh metal blades.Prospective randomized, controlled, single-blinded study.Operating room of a university-affiliated hospital.519 patients without criteria for predicted difficult intubation, undergoing scheduled surgery during general anesthesia.Patients were randomized to three groups according to laryngoscope blade brand.Difficult tracheal intubation was evaluated by the Intubation Difficulty Scale (IDS) (IDS > 5 = procedure involving moderate to major difficulty).The percentage of intubations with an IDS > 5 was 3.1% in Group M (metal blade group), 5.1% in Group V (Vital View plastic blade group), and 10.0% in Group H (Heine plastic blade group). A significant difference was noted between Groups M and H (P = 0.02) but not between Groups M and V.Intubation may be more challenging when using Heine XP plastic blades but no significant difference exists between Vital-View plastic blades and Heine Classic+ metal blades.