Airway Management Using the Intubating Laryngeal Mask Airway for the Morbidly Obese Patient

We studied the effectiveness of the intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILMA) in morbidly obese patients sched-uled for bariatric surgery. We included 118 consecutive morbidlyobese patients (body mass index,455kg/m2). After the induction of general anesthesia, the laryngeal view was classified by the first observer according to the method of Cormack and Lehane. The ILMA was then in-serted, and the trachea was intubated through the ILMA by a second observer. The rate of successful tracheal intu-bation with ILMA was 96.3%. The success rate, the num-ber of attempts, and the total duration of the procedure were not different among patients with low-grade (Cor-mack 1–2) and patients with high-grade (Cormack 3–4) laryngeal views. The time required for insertion of the ILMA was slightly longer in patients with high-grade la