Forces required to remove bougies from tracheal tubes.

Following a critical incident on our labour ward, we investigated the forces required to remove different bougies from different tracheal tubes and the effect of lubrication on ease of removal. Two studies were conducted: firstly examining the differences between six different bougies with a standard tracheal tube, and secondly examining the differences between four different tracheal tubes with a standard bougie. The forces varied amongst both the different bougies (p < 0.0001) and the different tracheal tubes (p < 0.0001). Removal was generally easier with lubrication but when corrected for multiple comparisons this did not reach statistical significance.