Chitra Rajeswari Thangaswamy1. 1. Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, India.
The Editor,I read with interest the article titled “Selection of an Appropriate Left-sided Double-lumen Tube Size for One-lung Ventilation among Asians.”[1] I congratulate the authors for focusing this unique problem with Asian patients. As stated by the authors, every anesthesiologist would prefer a double-lumen tube (DLT), which will fit into the patient without any trauma. In this study, the DLT was chosen based on the height and gender. Still, only 33% in 160–170 cm height and 23% in more than 170 cm male patients received the recommended size of DLT. Similarly, only 18% in 150–160 cm height and 12% in more than 160 cm female patients received the recommended size of DLT. I understood this was the problem, which the authors were trying to address through this study. As in all these patients, the anesthesiologist was same, the selection criteria (height and gender) would have been similar.[2] Hence, it would be very interesting to know how the different size of DLT was placed in the majority of patients. The data regarding the number of attempts and difficulty in lung isolation requiring change of DLT would be more important in this study. If the anesthesiologist would have chosen different DLT for the first attempt itself, the selection criteria (other than height and gender) could be informative to the readers. If the DLT was placed in the second attempt, the size of the DLT in the first attempt could have been too small or too big. This information would also be very useful for the readers to choose the DLT in Asian patients.