Techniques for Lung Deflation With Arndt® Blocker

The use of wire-guided Arndt® endobronchial blocker does not gain widespread acceptance during video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) because it takes longer time to collapse the operative lung especially in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD). The use of a disconnection technique for deflation of Arndt® blocker had a comparable degree of lung collapse with the use of double-lumen tubes. However, it carries a risk of blood or infected secretions contaminating the dependent lung. We hypothesise that the use bronchial suction of through a barrel part of a 1-mL insulin syringe attached to the suction port of the bronchial blocker would be associated with comparable time to optimum lung collapse with the disconnection technique. After ethical approval, 58 patients with spontaneous pneumothorax scheduled for elective VATS using Arndt blocker® for lung separation will be included in this prospective, randomized, double-blind study. Patients will be randomly assigned to deflate the blocker with either disconnecting the endotracheal tube from the ventilator for 60 s. prior to inflation of the bronchial blocker allowing both lungs to collapse, or attaching -20 cm H2O of suction to the suction port of the blocker through the barrel part of a 1-mL insulin syringe (n = 29 for each group).