Pediatric Endotracheal Tube Size

I did have an mentor of mine tell me that based on recent literature that he would only used cuffed endotracheal tubes of intubations in the emergency department. In this article I provided the formulas for calculating endotracheal tube (ETT) sizes for pediatric patients. Below I've also included a snapshot of a card I use to keep in my white coat pocket for quick reference.

Uncuffed ETT Size: 

4 + (age in years/4)

Cuffed ETT Size: 

(3.0 or 3.5) + (years/4)

Another way to remember the cuffed tube size is that it will be about one half to one full size smaller (than calculated from uncuffed size). 

Overview

Below is snapshot of a quick reference card including appropriate ETTs, direct laryngoscope sizes according to the pediatric age and weight. At the bottom you can also see the appropriate sizing for LMAs.