Seventy-five inexperienced participants were timed inserting the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) and the intubating laryngeal mask (ILM) in one of five cadavers. Adequacy of ventilation was assessed on a three-point scale depending on chest expansion and air leak. Participants were also asked to intubate the trachea via the ILM. The ILM was inserted faster than the LMA (P < 0.05) with a greater pro...

To the Editor:—I read with interest the letter of van Zundert et al. about the valve leaks noted with the new extraglottic/supraglottic airway devices. However, there appears to be an unintentional error in their letter. In the first sentence, the authors mention that they are reporting six cases of spontaneous cuff deflation during a clinical trial with a new airway device, which sounds like t...

BACKGROUND There is an increasing trend towards performing craniotomy awake. The challenge for the anaesthetist is to provide adequate analgesia and sedation, haemodynamic stability, and a safe airway, with an awake, cooperative patient for neurological testing. METHODS The records of all patients who had awake craniotomy at our institution were reviewed. Patients were divided into three grou...

BACKGROUND Although male circumcision is a surgical intervention that is frequently performed in children, there is no consensus about the age at which it should be performed. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine the best age range for routine male circumcision with respect to a child's health and the cost. PATIENTS AND METHODS This clinical trial was conducted in the affil...

During general anesthesia with the laryngeal mask airway (LMA), a significant increase in cuff pressure due to diffusion of nitrous oxide through the cuff wall occurs. This descriptive clinical study was conducted in a university teaching hospital ambulatory surgical center with 100 patients (ASA physical status, I-III; age, 5 months to 76 years; weight, 5.8-146.3 kg) undergoing general anesthe...

This prospective study on a medium-fidelity simulator (SimMan, Laerdal Medical Corporation, Wappingers Falls, NY, USA) examined the management of unanticipated difficult airway by 21 anaesthetists and the effect of training in this context. There were two scenarios investigated: 'cannot intubate, can ventilate' (CI) and 'cannot intubate, cannot ventilate' (CICV). Following initial evaluation, v...

Airway management is essential to anesthesia practice. Despite several predictors of difficult intubation, patients with unexpectedly difficult airways are sometimes encountered, and an unforeseen grade III–IV laryngoscopy in a paralyzed patient is still a potentially dangerous situation. Several techniques and devices can be used in the face of an unplanned difficult intubation, such as the la...

REFERENCES ] Kubota Y, Toyoda E Kubota H. Face mask fitting for edentulous patients. Anesth Analg 1993; 76: 450. 2 McGee IP II, Vender IS. Nonintubation management of the airway. In: Benumof JL (Ed.). Clinical Procedures in Anesthesia and Intensive Care. Philadelphia: JB Lippineott Co., 1992; 89-114. 3 Fisher JA, Ananthanarayan C, Eddist G. Role of the laryngeal mask in airway management. Can J...

This article presents a case in which an air medical flight crew encountered a potentially difficult airway when a trauma patient deteriorated in-flight. The crew elected to sedate and paralyze the patient and place a laryngeal mask airway without a prior attempt at direct laryngoscopy and endotracheal intubation. The term Rapid Sequence Airway (RSA) is coined for this novel approach. This arti...