BACKGROUND: Every practitioner, however skilled, will encounter patients who are unexpectedly difficult to intubation. The incidence of difficult laryngoscopy appears to be approximately 0.5% to 2%. So many methods are used to intubate the trachea, but endotraheal intubation by them is not always possible. The purpose of the this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of magnet on the endotracheal intubation. METHODS: Twenty patients(aged 30 to 59yr, ASA physical status 1) required general anesthesia with an endotracheal tube. Anesthesia was induced with thiopental sodium and succinylcholine, ventilation was controlled with 100% O2. The tip of the epiglottis was exposed wtih a No.3 MacIntosh laryngoscope. A catheter with ferrous stylet was placed behind epiglottis close to tracheal lumen and a magnet was placed over the cricoid cartilage allowing the stylet to be pulled. Endotraheal tube was guided into the trachea over the stylet. The time to intubation, the blood pressure and heart rate of pre- and postintubation, and the difficulty of intubation were recorded and the complications of the endotracheal intubation such as bronchial spasm, oral and tracheal mucosal trauma, and sore throat, were observed. RESULTS: The mean time to intubation was 31.2+/- 8(18 to 50)sec. There were statistically signigicant increase in blood pressure and heart rates following intubation. The incidence of excellent and good intubating condition were 14 and 6 respectively. Seventeen and three intubations were successful on the 1st and 2nd attempts respectively. There were no differences in incidence of complications of endotracheal intubation compared to other reports. CONCLUSIONS: Though magnet guided technique has some limitations to use in case of difficult laryngoscopy, it can be used with merits such as simplicity and cheapness when other methods are not available.