Use of i-gel supraglottic airway for emergency airway management by novice personnel in comparison with laryngeal mask airway and tracheal intubation in manikin models

• Published in: Masui. The Japanese journal of anesthesiology Vol. 62; no. 5; p. 592
• Main Authors: Kuwahara, Yoshie, Taguchi, Shima, Kusunoki, Shinji, Tanigawa, Koichi, Kawamoto, Masashi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan 01.05.2013
• Subjects: Airway Management - instrumentation; Clinical Competence; Emergencies; Humans; Internship and Residency; Intubation, Intratracheal - instrumentation; Laryngeal Masks; Manikins; Medical Staff, Hospital
• ISSN: 0021-4892

Tracheal intubation (TI) is a difficult skill to acquire and its proficiency deteriorates over time if not regularly practiced. However, inexperienced personnel may be required to perform airway management in emergency situations. We compared a novel supraglottic device, i-gel, with laryngeal mask airway classic (cLMA) and TI devices in regard to total success count, time required for placement, and difficulties encountered by novice personnel using a manikin model. Following a brief training, 24 residents were asked to insert each of i-gel, cLMA, and TI in a randomize fasion using a manikin. Success counts for placement and time required to chest rise were recorded. After completing the tests, the participants scored the difficulty of each device using a visual ana-log scale (0-100 mm, very easy to very difficult). The total success count with i-gel (46 times) was significantly higher than those of both cLMA (32 times) and TI (38 times), and the time to chest rise with i-gel (14 +/- 6 seconds) was significantly shorter than with cLMA (38 +/- 26 seconds). The difficulty score for i-gel (12 [0-51] mm) was significantly lower than those for both cLMA (51 [0-94] mm) and TI (25 [0-73] mm). An i-gel may be useful for emergency airway management by inexperienced personnel. Further studies in a clinical setting are necessary to confirm these findings.