Cardiovascular responses to the insertion of nasogastric tubes during general anaesthesia.

Eighty female patients free of cardiovascular disease who were having excision of breast lesions were randomly allocated to one of two groups. In the first group a nasogastric tube was inserted blindly during the surgical procedure, while in the second group the tube was inserted under direct laryngoscopy, using Magill forceps. Both groups exhibited a significant increase in systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p less than 0.001) and heart rate (HR) (p less than 0.005). These increases declined during the following 3 minutes. Ventricular extrasystoles (more than 5 during the 3 min following the insertion of the nasogastric tube) occurred only in the group having the nasogastric tube with the aid of laryngoscopy (p less than 0.05).

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes