The trachea is defined as the airway from the inferior border of the cricoid cartilage to the top of the carinal spur.
This paper would confirm the normal tracheal length of Korean adults through the actual measurement using the fiberoptic bronchoscopy.
The subjects of this study were 25 patients, 13 males and 12 females between the age of 20 to 69 without abnormality on the neck, trachea, mediastinum and lung pharenchyme on the preoperative chest X-ray, who received the operations from the
period
of
July to September, q994,. For those patients who had heart diseases, the cardiothoracic ratio was below 50%.
The measurement was performed on the patients with endotracheal intubation under the general anesthesia in supine and neutral position. The tracheal length was calculated by the difference between the length from the tip of the endotracheal tube
(E-tube) to carina and to the needle which was inserted into the E-tube at the lower border of the palpated cricoid cartilage, by inserting the broncoscopy throuth the E-tube.
@ES the result was as follow:
@EN 1) The measured tracheal length for men was 11.8±0.2 cm (mean standard deviation) and women was 10.5±0.3 cm, and that was longer than this (P<0.01). The average was 11.2±1.0 cm and the standard error was 0.20 cm.
2) According to the correlation between the tracheal length to weight, height (Ht), age, and body surface area (BSA) respectively, the Ht (P=0.003), age (p=0.055), and the BSA (p=0.017) were significant, while weight was not (p=0.314).
3) From the regression analysis or the tracheal length (T. L.) to the Ht, Age, and the BSA which were significant, the following equation was derived.
i) Ht : T. L. =-1.29+0.076×Ht (P=0.003)
ii) Age : T. L. =10.04+0.028×Age (P=0.055)
iii) BSA : T. L. =5.60+3.48×BSA (P=0.017)
iv) In multi-regression:
T. L =-4.15+0.034×Age+0.085×Ht (P=0.0002)
↑ ↑
P=0.0037 P=0.0003
(Korean J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1995;28:766-71)
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