Question 1. What is pictured in image 1?
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| Image 1 |
Question 2. What is it used for?
If you answered “Bite Block” you must be an ICU nurse.
I cannot count how many times nurses have tried to use the “oropharyngeal airway” as a bite block and complain about how the patient is fighting the tube & airway, gagging, and fighting the ventilator.
The next step, they usually heavily sedate or paralyze the patient.
An oropharyngeal airway is to help keep the airway patent (open) & should not be used in the conscious patient with a gag reflex.
Now this is a bite block (image 2), which can be used for that patient biting on an E.T. tube.
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| Image 2 "Bite Block" |