Comparison of clinical performance of i-gel with LMA-proseal in elective surgeries: A prospective randomized study

Abstract

Background: Day-care surgery that is, the patient being discharged from the hospital on the same day of surgical procedure, has become immensely popular modality of treatment throughout the globe. Supraglottic airway devices are used commonly as an alternative to endotracheal intubation for delivering general anaesthesia in Day Care Surgery. I-gel is a type of Supraglottic device possessing a soft gel like, cuffless supraglottic airway made of thermoplastic elastomer. The Proseal LMA (PLMA), another supraglottic device was designed in late 1990’s especially for use with positive pressure ventilation at high pressures. The present study work is to record the time taken for successful insertion, number of insertion attempts, the quality of ventilation during anaesthesia, hemodynamic parameters (heart rate & Blood Pressure) and change in SpO2 and incidence of airway trauma and gastric distension with I-gel and Proseal LMA. Material and Methods: Sixty patients undergoing elective surgery under general anaesthesia were divided into two groups of 30 each. Group I in which anaesthesia was delivered using I-gel and in Group P, anaesthesia was delivered using Proseal LMA. Time taken for successful placement, number of insertion attempts, the quality of ventilation, hemodynamic parameters and incidence of airway trauma and gastric distension are recorded. Results: PLMA takes longer to insert with less hemodynamic stability than I-gel however the quality of airway seal achieved is comparable to that of I-gel. Conclusion: The present study showed that I-gel could be an effective and better alternative than Proseal LMA as a supraglottic airway device.