• Yoshie Kuwahara, Shima Taguchi, Shinji Kusunoki, Koichi Tanigawa, and Masashi Kawamoto.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima 734-8551.
• Masui. 2013 May 1;62(5):592-5.

BackgroundTracheal intubation (TI) is a difficult skill to acquire and its proficiency deteriorates over time if not regularly practiced. However, inexperienced personnel may be required to perform airway management in emergency situations. We compared a novel supraglottic device, i-gel, with laryngeal mask airway classic (cLMA) and TI devices in regard to total success count, time required for placement, and difficulties encountered by novice personnel using a manikin model.MethodsFollowing a brief training, 24 residents were asked to insert each of i-gel, cLMA, and TI in a randomize fasion using a manikin. Success counts for placement and time required to chest rise were recorded. After completing the tests, the participants scored the difficulty of each device using a visual ana-log scale (0-100 mm, very easy to very difficult).ResultsThe total success count with i-gel (46 times) was significantly higher than those of both cLMA (32 times) and TI (38 times), and the time to chest rise with i-gel (14 +/- 6 seconds) was significantly shorter than with cLMA (38 +/- 26 seconds). The difficulty score for i-gel (12 [0-51] mm) was significantly lower than those for both cLMA (51 [0-94] mm) and TI (25 [0-73] mm).ConclusionsAn i-gel may be useful for emergency airway management by inexperienced personnel. Further studies in a clinical setting are necessary to confirm these findings.

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