Use of an i‐gel™ for airway rescue

Comparison of fibrescope guided intubation via the classic laryngeal mask airway and i‐gel in a manikin*

“…Finally, the cuff seal pressure is reported to be superior to the LMA Classic [17] (but falls short of the leak pressure that can be achieved with the Proseal laryngeal mask airway [18]). There are two case reports of the successful use of the i-gel for rescue intubation [11,12]. The findings of this study and the above evidence suggest that the i-gel is a potentially useful device in the management of unexpected difficult airway.…”

“…In addition, the anaesthetists who took part in our study preferred the i-gel to the LMA Classic. The published evidence also seems to suggest that the i-gel may be of use as a conduit in difficult airway management and failed intubation [9][10][11][12]. The i-gel is rapidly and easily inserted by both novice and experienced users and provides a reliable airway [9,10] (although caution is required when choosing the size of the i-gel because inappropriate sizing could lead to significantly reduced first attempt success rates for insertion [17]).…”

“…The i-gel has been evaluated for ease of insertion by novices in manikins and in patients and appears to compare favourably with other supraglottic airway devices [9,10]. The i-gel has been reported both as an airway rescue device and as a conduit for fibreoptic intubation in predicted difficult airways [11][12][13]. We wondered whether the i-gel's design features of a shorter wider stem compared with the LMA Classic, together with the absence of epiglottic bars, might facilitate fibreoptic intubation through this device, and whether it might therefore have an important role in the management of unanticipated difficult intubation.…”

Supraglottic airways in difficult airway management: successes, failures, use and misuse

“…To determine whether any of Anaesthesia, 2011, 66 (Suppl. 2), pages [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] A. Timmermann AE Supraglottic airways in difficult airway management . ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Ó 2011 The Author Anaesthesia Ó 2011 The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland the newer SADs (with design features that might be anticipated to offer performance benefits) offer genuine clinical advantages, properly powered RCTs in patients with difficult-to-manage airways are needed, both in hospital and in the pre-hospital setting.…”

“…Also the ILMA, designed especially for the management of the difficult airway, has been described as being successfully used for ventilation in the anticipated [26][27][28][29][30][31][32] and unanticipated [33,34] difficult airway in 97-100% of cases. Case reports or series (level 4) of successful ventilation in patients with difficult airways have been described for many other SADs: the LMA PLMA [35][36][37][38][39][40][41], the SLMA [42][43][44], the i-gel [45][46][47][48][49][50], the Ambu-i TM [51], the Air-Q [52][53][54][55], the CobraPLA [56] and the CobraPLUS [57]. The Laryngeal Tube, designed for emergency ventilation, is also successfully described in difficult airway management in elective adult [58] and paediatric [59] patients in the operation room.…”