Anest. intenziv. Med. 2011;22(3):149-152

A conceptual ideal supraglottic airwayAnaesthesiology - Review articles

Miller M. Donald

Guys Hospital, London, UK

The single most important factor motivating research and development of SGAs is the associated risks of intubating patients with a tracheal tube. Predictable airway injury and the greater side-effects in the use of tracheal tubes is putting pressure on favouring SGAs over tracheal tube anaesthesia. In the future, the ability to minimize side-effects while obtaining better quality of seal in an SGA may determine the extent to which tracheal tube anaesthesia becomes a practise that will be limited to patients with full stomachs and special requirements such as thoracic anaesthesia.
The factors that influence safety as well as the various compromises that have to be made with respect to each characteristic of the various designs of supraglottic airway are discussed and quantified. These factors include quality of seal, ease of insertion, side-effects in their use, aspiration protection/access to the gastrointestinal tract and suitability for use in difficult airway scenarios. A scoring system may help us assess newer devices against what we currently have available to us and provide a more objective basis to measure or compare the various devices.

Keywords: supraglottic airway device; seal pressure; aspiration; positive pressure ventilation

Received: March 30, 2011; Accepted: April 10, 2011; Published: June 1, 2011  Show citation