Intubations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A medical procedure involving the insertion of a tube into a patient's airway to facilitate breathing
2. The act of placing a tube into the trachea to assist with ventilation during surgery or critical care
3. A technique used to manage a patient’s airway by inserting a tube for the purpose of anesthesia or respiratory support

Etymology: Joseph O'Dwyer, an American physician working in New York, is usually credited with coining "intubation" in the early 1880s, probably between 1880 and 1884, and the term spread through widespread publication from 1887. Before that, the English word simply meant the act of introducing something into a passage, not a medical procedure. The "intubations" here is the plural of "intubation," so the entry is really about the single act, repeated. The word is formed from the Latin "intubare" or "intubus"-based roots meaning to introduce a tube into, combining "in-" (into) with "tuba" (tube), with the "-ation" suffix turning the action into a noun. O'Dwyer's invention gave surgeons a precise name for passing a tube through the mouth or nose into the windpipe, a technique he helped develop for keeping children with diphtheria breathing when their airways swelled shut.