SORT maneuver: ease and safety for the practitioner and the patient

Excerpt

I read with interest the report of a randomized clinical trial by Sanaie et al. on the comparison of SORT maneuver versus a conventional technique of neck flexion lateral pressure (NFLP) for nasogastric tube (NGT) insertion in ICU-admitted patients [1]. This publication provides evidence for a greater ease of NGT insertion using SORT. Moreover, the success rate was much higher with SORT as compared to NFLP. The study looks flawless in methodology and straight forward in reporting the outcome results with a clever categorization for ease of insertion. Nevertheless, a general drawback is a lack of standard definitions for the favorable outcome like the time span attributable to “ease of insertion” and the determinants for “insertion failure”. …