USB Borescope Video Laryngoscope Blade and Handle

thingiverse

THIS IS NOT FDA APPROVED. THIS HAS NOT BEEN TESTED IN HUMANS. I am sharing this due to the COVID19 crisis; in case a provider in a low resource setting elected to try this as a last resort for compassionate care. The blade is the same design (slight modification discussed below) that I presented at the Society for Technology in Anesthesia conference in 2017. The blade was tested in a randomized trial intubating a Laerdal difficult airway trainer. https://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-analgesia/toc/2017/05001 pages 32-34 This is an updated design that was intended for a human trial that never happened. Due to variability among laryngoscope handle connectors and the limitations of the strength of the plastic I decided on a printed handle. The handle accepts a standard 5/16 inch thick steel bolt that screws through the handle, the handle then screws into the blade. Having this steel core significantly increased strength. The handle is also designed to be short which further can help with difficult intubation. The blade was slightly modified so a 5.5 mm borescope camera screws into it. This is so alignment of the image is maintained. I used a 5.5 mm USB video borescope that could attach to a tablet or cellphone. https://www.amazon.com/CrazyFire-Smartphone-Endoscope-Inspection-Waterproof/dp/B015SMFFV8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502794365&sr=8-1&keywords=crazyfire+usb+borescope I used PETG because this plastic was labelled FDA food safe at time of study. It also tended to be stronger than other filaments used. The print settings used for the printing of the VLB in this study were an extruder temperature of 245° Celsius, the print bed was 60 °Celsius, print speed of 35 mm/sec, layer height of 0.3 mm, and shell thickness of 0.8 mm. I wrote infill of 80-100%, I probably used 80% on handle and 100% on blade. This is needed for strength. Please let me know if this is successfully used.