[Manikin-based comparison of the use of different supraglottic airways by laypersons]

Supraglottic airways (SGA) are an established method of airway management both in prehospital medicine and clinical settings. Endotracheal intubation is the gold standard, but SGA offer advantages in terms of faster application learnability.

In the present study it was investigated whether the time until the first sufficient ventilation in the three examined SGAs applied by bystander differed significantly.

A total of 160 visitors to a shopping mall were assigned to one of the three SGA after permutative block randomization. The primary endpoint of the present study was the required placement time until the first sufficient ventilation.

Participants managed to place the i‑gel laryngeal mask airway (i-gel, Intersurgical Beatmungsprodukte GmbH, Sankt Augustin, Germany) after a median time of 11 s, whereas the median time until the first sufficient ventilation using a classic laryngeal mask airway (LMA; 26 s) or a laryngeal tube (LT; 28 s) was significantly longer. Thus, the time savings when using the i‑gel compared to the LT and LMA were each significant (p < 0.001), whereas the times between LT and LMA did not differ significantly (p 0.65).

The results show that laypersons are able to successfully apply various supraglottic airways to the phantom after a short learning period. The i‑gel laryngeal mask could be placed with the highest success rate and speed.