The intubating laryngeal mask airway in fresh cadavers vs paralysed anesthetised patients

Abstract

Purpose: To compare the performance of the intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILM) between fresh cadavers and anesthetised patients in terms of ease of insertion, oropharyngeal leak pressure (OLP), in-vivo intracuff pressure, anatomical position (assessed fibreoptically) and ease of fibreoptic-guided intubation. Methods: Twenty paralysed anesthetised patients and twenty cadavers (6-24 hr post-mortem) were studied. Groups were matched for height, weight and sex. Ease of insertion and ease of fibreoptic-guided intubation (number of insertion attempts and time to successful placement) were recorded. The OLP, in-vivo intracuff pressure and anatomical position (judged fibreoptically) were measured at zero volume and after each additional 10 ml up to 40 ml. Results: There were no differences in ease of insertion or ease of fibreoptic-guided intubation, OLP, in-vivo intracuff pressure or anatomic position between groups. Conclusions: We conclude that the performance of the ILM is similar for fresh cadavers and paralysed anesthetised patients. This suggests that the fresh cadaver is a suitable model for training and research.