[Recent advances in airway management devices]

As a variety of new airway devices has been introduced, the practice of airway management has seemingly become more complex. Among them laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is the single most important development in the past 10 years. It has become a commonly accepted device for routine and rescue airway management, and is now listed in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Difficult Airway Management Algorithm as an airway and a conduit for tracheal intubation. The ASA Task Force on Management of the Difficult Airway recommends us to have a portable storage unit that contains specialized equipment including LMA for difficult airway management. This article focuses on several of the newly developed and the ordinary devices that are listed by the Task Force, with particular emphasis on the difficult airway. Recent information about standardization work of ISO for rigid laryngoscopes, tracheal tubes and supralaryngeal airway devices are also discussed. Each airway devices has unique properties that may be advantageous in certain situations but disadvantageous in others. Choice and combination of device based on experienced clinical judgment may be crucial to their application.