Forward displacement of the larynx for nasogastric tube insertion in intubated patients.

Simple insertion of a nasogastric (NG) tube was successful in only 52 of 100 anesthetized intubated patients. After the larynx was manually pulled forward, the NG tube was successfully inserted in 33 patients. In the remaining 15 patients, the NG tube was inserted only with the aid of a finger or a laryngoscope used with Magill forceps. The difficulty of NG tube insertion was not correlated with sex, age, weight, or type of endotracheal intubation. Forward displacement of the larynx by manually gripping and lifting the thyroid cartilage is a useful and safe maneuver that facilitates NG tube insertion in anesthetized intubated patients.