Supraglottic Airway Devices: An Overview

Abstract

Background: Supraglottic Airway Devices relates to a wide range of medical devices that can act as a passage way for oxygenation, ventilation and administration of anesthetic gas. In recent decades, their acceptance has gradually risen, becoming a basic instrument in contemporary anaesthesiology. Due to their simplicity, speed of insertion, and efficacy, some writers refer to them as extraglottic periglottic or supralaryngeal airways, but the word' supraglottic airways devices SADs is the most commonly used in this review. Brain's Laryngeal Mask Airway, launched in 1983, marked the start of a revolution as a new technique for airway management, eventually replacing the most commonly used tracheal intubation. SADs is employed to protect the airway in both elective as well as emergency situations. One of the first SADs to come on the market was the Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA), invented by an anesthesiologist named Archie Brain in England. Brain was attempting to find a handsfree approach to ventilation that did not involve inserting a tube into the patient's trachea.