They all have their quirks and advantages. It is best to get some hands-on experience with all of them while in training if possible. I had never used the McGrath until post-residency and I probably looked like a fool since the first time I used it, the patient was quite anterior and had to switch to glidescope to get a view. In hindsight, poor patient selection to try something new on my part, even though I had asked a couple of partners the night before what they would do in that situation and they both said McGrath is where it's at. Despite that first fumble, the McGrath has worked well every other time I have used it. That was a particularly strange airway with redundant soft tissue folds, etc.
Point is, I might have made a different management decision if I was more familiar with the McGrath. My partners told me it was "the same or better" than glidescope; however, in this anterior airway, that was clearly not the case.
The other airway surprise has been using fiberoptic scopes with only an eyepiece, something I had done a couple of times just for kicks, but hadn't needed to rely on during residency, where we connected to the big screen so the entire OR could appreciate our airway management skills, or lack thereof. 🙂 Getting comfortable with doing things many ways is always wise.
