European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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In a difficult access scenario, supraglottic airway devices improve success and time to ventilation.
The success of tracheal intubation (TI) is unacceptably low in unconventional positions. Supraglottic airway devices (SAD) have become an important alternative. An airway manikin was placed in a car, simulating an entrapped motor vehicle accident victim. ⋯ Fastest effective ventilation was achieved with iGel (11.5 ± 6.9 s, P < 0.001), followed by a laryngeal mask (15.1 ± 5.6 s, P < 0.001) and a laryngeal tube (17.6 ± 5.3 s, P < 0.001); TI was the slowest (42.8 ± 23.9 s, comparator). iGel (P < 0.001) and laryngeal mask (P = 0.01) also significantly outperformed the laryngeal tube. First ventilation was achieved significantly faster with SADs compared with TI. Success rates were also higher when using SADs.