Article Notes
This controlled study randomised 212 children to either deep plane-of-anesthesia or awake, and either supine or lateral position, for removal of their laryngeal mask at the completion of surgery.
"Deep anesthesia" was defined as ET-sevoflurane 2.2%, stable for 1 minute. The "awake" group had their LMA removed by the PACU nurse after eye opening and/or obeying commands.
Airway complications included desaturation < 90%, stridor, laryngospasm, retching/vomiting, excess secretions and biting. A secondary outcome was also studied, assigning a 'clinical significance score' to the range of complications.
Deep removal in the lateral position was associated with the fewest complications. Deep removal when supine was associated with the most complications.
This study was a follow-up to a two-centre observational audit from 2008.