To the Editor:--Sood et al. ascribe the first description of the esophageal detector to Wee. [1]This is not correct. Wee was an independent reinventor, the namegiver of the "esophageal detector device," and the first to publish a formal study on this issue. [2]But the first description of the syringe test was by Pollard 8 yr earlier.* Pollard and Wee agreed on these facts in the correspondence section of Anesthesia. [3,4].
Wolfgang H. Maleck, Resident in Anesthesiology, Klinikum Ludwigshafen, D-67063 Ludwigshafen, Germany.
(Accepted for publication April 13, 1995.)
* Pollard BJ: A test to verify accurate placement of an endotracheal tube. World Congress of Anaesthesiology, Amsterdam, Excerpta Medica, 1980; Abstract 1112.
REFERENCES
1.
Sood PK, Hamschmidt M, Baylis R: The esophageal detector device: Ellick's evacuator versus syringe (letter). ANESTHESIOLOGY 82:314, 1995.
2.
Wee MYK: The oesophageal detector device. Anaesthesia 43:27, 1988.
3.
Pollard BJ: Oesophageal detector device. Anaesthesia 43:713-714, 1988.
4.
Wee M: A reply. Anaesthesia 43:714, 1988.
Copyright 1995 by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Inc.
