The introduction of a new laryngoscope blade necessitates careful and prolonged consideration in view of the many excellent ones presently available. After much study, it was felt that it might be possible to devise a new blade which would combine the best and most essential properties of its many predecessors.
An open-sided blade was selected for two reasons. It permits a better visualization of the larynx since instruments do not have to be manipulated through the laryngoscope and so partly obstruct the field of vision. It enables an endotracheal tube to be inserted, should this prove necessary during general anesthesia, without the difficult problem of removing a closed laryngoscope while maintaining a tube in the larynx.
The side opening of the blade was widened, as the only essential function of the lower portion of the half-circle is keeping the tongue to one side of the operative field.
The spatulated distal