The Kitten as a Teaching Model for Intubation of the Human Neonate

Abstract

Teaching endotracheal intubation with rubber models lacks realism. Practice on anesthetized human patients in operating rooms risks trauma to the patients and limits practice time. Therefore we use anesthetized kittens as teaching models for human neonatal intubation, as the anatomy and level of difliculty of the procedure are similar to those encountered in the human patient. At the time of writing, all of our more than 100 “students” have eventually succeeded in this intubation.