Difficult Airway Emergencies are Made Easier with Simple ROTIGS Intubation Device and a Little Anesthesia

A simple medical device by Honolulu inventor Dr. Brad NaPier makes difficult airway emergency
intubations easier for medical professionals.


Honolulu, Hawaii, February 2, 2011 -- When solving a problem, there's a popular saying to "Keep it simple." But keeping it simple only works if one truly understands the nature of the problem around which a solution can then be developed. Case in point is a simple new medical device called ROTIGS by Honolulu Dr. Brad NaPier that makes difficult airway emergency intubations easier.

How much easier? Here's how Dr. Oren Bernstein MD, Chief Resident of Anesthesiology, describes his
experience with ROTIGS:

"A woman needed urgent intubation but was in c-spine precautions, and I had a new resident tagging along with me at night ... and thought I'd see how well the ROTIGS worked for someone who had never fiberoptically intubated before. It worked like a charm. We positioned ourselves in front of the patient, sat her up, topically anesthetized the airway, popped in the ROTIGS, readied the scope, and my junior had a view of the cords before you could say, "rapid oral tracheal intubation guidance system." (ROTIGS is the acronym for these words)

ROTIGS makes the job easier by pinpointing problems described by Dr. Kenneth Rothfield, Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology, St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Rothfield states that other fiber optic bronchoscopy devices don't allow you to maintain a midline during bronchoscopy procedures. This is especially the case in awake patients. ROTIGS solves these problems by wrapping around the teeth to hold it in place along a midline while preventing gagging because the bronchoscope is held away from the tongue.

Dr. Rothfield, who is widely recognized for his research on advanced airway devices involving video laryngoscopy and patient safety, says, "It's a little piece of genius."

In our society, making difficult tasks easier is one way that we measure product value. Dr. Michael Murphy, a
renowned, leading educator on difficult airway management, thinks the device has definite value and says,
"ROTIGS is a substantial advance as an assist device for endoscopic airway evaluation and bronchoscopic
endotracheal intubation, particularly in the hands of those that perform this vital skill infrequently. For this reason, we are including ROTIGS as a permanent fixture in the Difficult Airway Courses: Anesthesia and Emergency."

Progress is all about finding a better way and, hopefully, making it easier at the same time.

For additional information about Dr. NaPier's ROTIGS medical device invention, contact Dr. Brad NaPier by calling 808-218-5484 or visit www.rotigs.com.

About Dr. Brad NaPier:

Brad NaPier MD is a 58 year old practicing Otolaryngologist in Honolulu, Hawaii. ROTIGS is patent pending in the United States, Japan and the European Union.

Contact:
Dr. Brad NaPier, Otolaryngologist
808-218-5484
http://www.rotigs.com
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Press Release

http://www.pr.com/press-release/248761

Hanu Surgical Devices’ ROTIGS Intubation Medical Device by Inventor Dr. Brad Napier Demonstrates How Creatively Combining Known Concepts Is Key to Innovation

Honolulu Dr. Brad NaPier, Ear Nose and Throat Surgeon, invents new medical tracheal intubation device that showcases the process of new product innovation by creatively combining known concepts.

Honolulu, HI, July 16, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Dr. Brad NaPier, an Ear Nose and Throat Surgeon in Honolulu, has invented a dramatically easier way to insert a tube into a person's throat. Dr. NaPier asked himself, "Why does this have to be so difficult?" He then creatively combined known concepts to develop his innovative patent pending ROTIGS (Rapid Oral Tracheal Intubation Guidance System) medical device.

Dr. NaPier created his medical device by bringing together several principals and associating them in a new combination. These principals are: 1) contact with the tongue causes gagging, 2) the throat collapses if a person is fully sedated, 3) vocal cords can be viewed with a mirror in awake patients, and 4) when the jaw is moved forward the throat pathway becomes more open. By creatively combining these concepts and using the patients teeth for stabilization, Dr. NaPier invented a device that positions the jaw in a forward position allowing a camera-mounted tube to be inserted down the throat of an awake patient without touching the tongue. In addition, the device cuts health care costs by eliminating the need for expensive diagnostic CT scans. Dr. NaPier says, "The pieces of this puzzle became apparent and I merely put them together." A common reaction by medical professionals to the invention is, "Ahha! Why didn't I think of that?"

At the request of other medical professionals, Dr. NaPier recently began sharing his FDA approved ROTIGS device. Dr. DuCanto, an anesthesiologist in Wisconsin, began using the device within 15 minutes of receiving it in the mail by intubating a patient with a cervical spine tumor. A few weeks later, Dr. DuCanto quickly diagnosed another patient as having a voice box tumor by performing a bronchoscopic (camera-mounted) intubation with the device. Dr. DuCanto feels ROTIGS should be on every difficult airway cart in every hospital in the U.S. - and has already saved one life with it.

So what does this have to do with the rest of us? The answer may lie in our need to always find a better way. For example, another famous inventor also once combined information in a new combination that touches each one of us everyday. To invent the incandescent light bulb, Thomas Edison combined two old, well known principals: 1) light is produced when electricity passes through a small wire, 2) fire cannot take place in a vacuum without oxygen. Edison's solution was to place the wire in a bulb to shut out all oxygen so the wire produces light without catching on fire. We already have knowledge to solve some of the greatest problems facing us today. It's just up to our creative imagination about how to combine and apply it with a unique synthesis of observations.

Dr. NaPier's ROTIGS device will not change society to the degree that Edison's light bulb has, but it has already saved lives. And, that alone makes it the most significant invention of all time to those fortunate patients.

For additional information about Dr. NaPier's ROTIGS medical device invention, contact Dr. Brad NaPier by calling808-218-5484 or visit www.rotigs.com.

About Dr. Brad NaPier:

Brad NaPier MD is a 57 year old practicing Otolaryngologist in Honolulu, Hawaii. ROTIGS is patent pending in the United States, Japan and the European Union.

Contact:
Dr. Brad NaPier, Otolaryngologist
808-218-5484
http://www.rotigs.com

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Rotigs will be featured during the fiberoptic workshops at the following meetings:

SAM meeting in Chicago, Sept 24-26, 2010
ASA meeting in San Diego, October 16-20, 2010
The Airway Course: Anesthesia and Emergency, St. Louis, September 10-12, 2010
The Airway Course: Anesthesia and Emergency, Atlanta, October 22-24, 2010
The Airway Course: Anesthesia and Emergency, Las Vegas, November 19-21 2010