Anaes SAQs · Airway management

Supraglottic airway devices — generations, applications and the difficult-airway rescue

The core supraglottic-airway SAQ — the first-generation classic LMA (inflatable cuff, lowest seal of the family, no gastric channel) versus the second-generation devices (ProSeal, Supreme, i-gel; higher seal with a gastric drainage channel), the i-gel non-inflatable cuff, the intubating LMA (Fastrach) as a fibreoptic-guided bridge to intubation, the five uses (routine anaesthesia, guideline rescue, bridge, CPR and prehospital, paediatric), the advantages over the endotracheal tube, the disadvantages and contraindications, and the guideline rescue decision (adequate oxygenation — stop and wake; failed rescue with impossible mask oxygenation — immediate scalpel cricothyroidotomy).