Double and Single Lumen Endobronchial Tube

A double lumen tube is an endobronchial tube with two lumens that reach the lungs separately, so it can set up a unilateral or bilateral artificial airway. It is used for one-lung ventilation and lung isolation in thoracic surgery. In purchasing the tube is also written as endobronchial tube, right/left.

The double lumen tube reaches each lung through its own lumen. The single lumen endobronchial tube has an outer diameter close to an ordinary endotracheal tube; inflating or deflating its cuff sets unilateral or bilateral ventilation. A bronchial blocker is a catheter passed through a tube or mask already in place, and its cuff closes off one bronchus. The camera version and the blocker have their own pages.

The position of the right upper lobe bronchus relative to the carina varies between patients, so a right-sided double lumen tube may not suit every patient (Campos and Massa, Anesth Analg 1998). The physician chooses the side for the surgery and the patient's bronchial anatomy. The tube on this page comes left and right, in the same nine sizes on both sides.

The double lumen tube comes in nine sizes: Fr26, 28, 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39 and 41. On the French (Fr) scale, 1 Fr is one third of a millimetre of outer diameter; the larger the number, the thicker the tube. The single lumen endobronchial tube comes from 6.0 to 8.5 in steps of 0.5. This page gives no size chart by patient; the physician chooses the size for the patient's airway.

With a standard double lumen tube, the final position is usually confirmed with a fiberoptic bronchoscope. Its bronchial cuff is blue. How and when the position is checked is the physician's decision. For teams who want to watch the position on a monitor throughout intubation, the double lumen tube with camera has its own page, and the video bronchoscope is also on this site.

It is a bronchial tube with an outer diameter close to an ordinary endotracheal tube; the manufacturer states that it is easy to place. Inflating or deflating its cuff sets unilateral or bilateral ventilation. The manufacturer also states that its drainage function helps drainage, exhaust and re-expansion of the lung on the affected side. It comes from 6.0 to 8.5, and the physician chooses the tube.

Studies report strengths on both sides. In a meta-analysis of 39 randomized trials, the double lumen tube was placed about 51 seconds faster, and the blocker had less sore throat and airway injury (Clayton-Smith et al., 2015). In a meta-analysis of 25 studies, malposition was 25.3% with the double lumen tube and 31.9% with the blocker, while hypoxemia, hoarseness and sore throat were more frequent with the double lumen tube (Palaczynski et al., 2023). These studies did not use these products; the physician chooses.

We can share the product documents and the list of sizes and sides with model codes for both tubes, and answer technical questions. Not yet: the double and single lumen endobronchial tube is not available for order in Türkiye, so this page carries no list price. Write to us with the button on this page for information.