The intubating laryngeal mask airway in fresh cadavers vs. paralysed anesthetised patients

To compare the performance of the intubating laryngeal mask airway (ILM) between fresh cadavers and anesthetised patients in terms of ease of insertion, oropharyngeal leak pressure (OLP), in-vivo intracuff pressure, anatomical position (assessed fibreoptically) and ease of fibreoptic-guided intubation.

Twenty paralysed anesthetised patients and twenty cadavers (6-24 hr post-mortem) were studied. Groups were matched for height, weight and sex. Ease of insertion and ease of fibreoptic-guided intubation (number of insertion attempts and time to successful placement) were recorded. The OLP in-vivo intracuff pressure and anatomical position (judged fibreoptically) were measured at zero volume and after each additional 10 ml up to 40 ml.

There were no differences in ease of insertion or ease of fibreoptic-guided intubation, OLP, in-vivo intracuff pressure or anatomic position between groups.

We conclude that the performance of the ILM is similar for fresh cadavers and paralysed anesthetised patients. This suggests that the fresh cadaver is a suitable model for training and research.