Failure to provide one-lung ventilation can prohibit minimally invasive thoracic surgeries. Strategies for one-lung ventilation include double-lumen endotracheal tubes or endobronchial blockers, but rarely both. Inability to provide lung isolation after double-lumen endotracheal tube placement requires troubleshooting and sometimes the use of extra equipment. This case describes using a unique Y-shaped endobronchial blocker placed through a left-sided double-lumen endotracheal tube after failure to achieve lung isolation with a double-lumen endotracheal tube alone.
Keywords: EZ-blocker; airway management; cardiothoracic anesthesia; cardiothoracic surgery; double-lumen tube; endobronchial blocker; one-lung ventilation; thoracic anesthesia; thoracic surgery.