Clinical Study Comparison of Five 2nd-Generation Supraglottic Airway Devices for Airway Management Performed by Novice Military Operators

Copyright © 2015 Tomas Henlin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives. Five different second-generation supraglottic airway devices, ProSeal LMA, Supreme LMA, i-gel, SLIPA, and Laryngeal Tube Suction-D, were studied. Operators were inexperienced users with a military background, combat lifesavers, nurses, and physicians.Methods. This was a prospective, randomized, single-blinded study. Devices were inserted in the operating room in low light conditions after induction of general anesthesia. Primary outcomewas successful insertion on the first attemptwhile secondary aims were insertion time, number of attempts, oropharyngeal seal pressure, ease of insertion, fibre optic position of device, efficacy of ventilation, and intraoperative trauma or regurgitation of gastric contents. Results. In total, 505 patients were studied. First-attempt insertion success rate was higher in the Supreme LMA (96%), i-gel (87.9%), and ProSeal LMA (85.9%) groups than in the Laryngeal Tube Suction-D (80.6%) and SLIPA (69.4%) groups. Insertion time was shortest in the Supreme LMA (70.4 ± 32.5 s) and i-gel (74.4 ± 41.1 s) groups