Performance of the air-Q Intubating Laryngeal Airway in Children

Although ILA and fiber-optic tracheal tube placement were universally successful in small children, laryngeal views through the ILA were poor.

The air-Q Intubating Laryngeal Airway (ILA) is a disposable laryngeal mask airway designed to allow blind or fiber-optic–assisted placement of a cuffed endotracheal tube through its center channel. Researchers evaluated performance of the ILA in 100 healthy pediatric elective-surgery patients (mean age, 4.2 years; mean weight, 17 kg) without markers of difficult intubation at a Chicago hospital during a 6-month period.

Four anesthesiologists experienced with fiber-optic intubation through the ILA performed all intubations, using a size 1.5 ILA for children weighing 7 to 17 kg and size 2.0 ILA for children weighing >17 to 30 kg. Successful ILA placement and ventilation (defined as >5 mL/kg tidal volume) was achieved in all 100 patients (on th…

Reviewing Authors

Emily L. Brown, MD

Ron M. Walls, MD, FRCPC, FAAEM

Disclosures

Speaker's bureauAirway Management Education Center, LLC

EquityAirway Management Education Center, LLC

Grant / Research supportAgency for Health Care Research and Quality

Editorial boardsManual of Emergency Airway Management; Rosen's Emergency Medicine; UpToDate; Scientific American Medicine