Pain, agitation, gagging and other unpleasant sensations and reactions often accompany many types of medical procedures and/or medical situations in the mouth, nose, upper airway, and/or gastrointestinal tract. For example, patients who require endotracheal or gastrointestinal tube placement often suffer from many of these unpleasant sensations and reactions. Unfortunately, there are few currently available options for dealing with these unpleasant effects. Typically, such sensations are treated by injecting a local nerve block into effected tissues with a needle, a onetime spray of local anesthetic where the foreign object touches tissue, or the use of intravenous sedation. Local, injected nerve blocks and onetime sprays typically are not adequate and do not last long enough. Intravenous sedation is accompanied by many unpleasant side effects, such as confusion, delirium, increased length of intensive care unit stay, increased length of hospital stay, decreased mobility, increased healthcare costs, and increased number of days spent on a ventilator.
While a variety of innovations have been tried, in an effort to reduce sensation, discomfort or pain in the airway, improved systems, devices and methods would still be desirable. Ideally, such improved systems, devices and methods would provide local anesthesia to relevant parts of the airway in order to reduce the pain, discomfort and anxiety induced by the endotracheal tube, particularly on a continuous or long term basis. Also ideally, such systems, devices and methods could be used in a wide variety of settings and patients. Finally, it would be ideal if these systems, devices and methods could be used, or adapted for use, in other body areas, such as the gastrointestinal tract, or for other indications. At least some of these objectives will be met by the embodiments described herein.