The Development and Historical Context of the Datta Short Laryngoscope Handle

 Abstract
The hormonal, physiologic, and anatomic changes of pregnancy have a number of significant anesthetic implications, including the potential for difficulties and
failures in tracheal intubation. The American Society of Anesthesiology closed claims database in the 1970s observed that maternal deaths were involved in
30% of all obstetrics claims, most stemming from difficulty with intubation or ventilation. In the late 1970s, Dr. Sanjay Datta, MBBS, an obstetric
anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA), observed a number of differences in the practice of obstetric anesthesia in the United States
when compared with his prior experiences in the United Kingdom and Canada. Dr. Datta perceived that parturients within North America had a higher body
mass index. In addition, he observed an increased rate of cesarean delivery and general anesthesia use.

These differences led him to evaluate ways in which the laryngoscope itself could be altered to improve the ease of intubation of parturients.

 this led to the development of the short laryngoscope handle. The genesis of the Datta short laryngoscope handle, and the accompanying historical
context, will be explored.

The hormonal, physiologic, and anatomic changes of pregnancy have a number of significant anesthetic implications, including the potential for difficulties and
failures in tracheal intubation.1 Recent advances in airway management algorithms, education, and devices (e.g. laryngeal mask airway,
videolaryngoscopy instruments) have significantly reduced the morbidity and mortality associated with obstetric airway instrumentation and ventilation.2,3 Case
fatality rates during general anesthesia for cesarean delivery in the United States decreased from 16.8 per million in 1991 to 1996 to 6.5 per million in 1997 to
2002.4 Confidential enquiries into maternal deaths in the United Kingdom observed a similar reduction in airway-related maternal deaths from 16 deaths in
1976 to 1978 to 6 deaths in 2000 to 2002.5

However, before these developments within the last 2 decades, obstetric anesthesiologists had few alternatives when performing direct laryngoscopy,
mostly confined to the use of a different blade type (e.g., Miller or Macintosh) or size. In the late 1970s, Sanjay Datta, MBBS, developed a short laryngoscope
handle to assist in the intubation of parturients. In this manuscript, we will chronicle the genesis and associated historical context of the Datta short
laryngoscope handle.

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