These clinician-inspired enhancements include the taper-shaped TaperGuard™ cuff. The TaperGuard™ cuff may help protect the lungs and reduce tracheal impact by reducing fluid leakage by 99% and exerting 18.6% less lateral wall pressure on the trachea.¹ In addition, TaperGuard™ cuff technology helps improve a clinician’s ability to provide mechanical ventilation with the ability to titrate ventilator air leak that is 65% greater than with earlier-generation Shiley™ tubes.

Shiley™ flexible tubes were designed with larger inner diameters, compared to earlier Shiley™ tracheostomy tubes. Airflow around the outer cannula when the cuff is deflated has increased by an average of 242%. It has been found that improved airflow may reduce the work of breathing required to speak and wean from a tracheostomy tube.

Other enhancements in the new family of Shiley™ flexible tracheostomy tubes include color-coding by size (for disposable inner cannula products only), an expanded range of sizes, a soft material made with a non-DEHP plasticizer, a clear flange and a design that make it possible to ventilate with or without an inner cannula.