An overview on the use of the laryngeal mask airway amongst anaesthesia practitioners in a developing country.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study is to provide an overview on the use of the Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) amongst anaesthesia practitioners in Nigeria

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This is a multicentre questionnaire based study involving eight tertiary health care institutions in Nigeria. The questionnaires were administered to anaesthetists. They were standardised open- and close-ended questions which were completed in person. The questionnaire was subdivided into a set of questions which include: status of the anaesthetist; the routine use of LMA in general anaesthesia and as a device for airway management in difficult airway. Statistical analyses were done by simple percentages.

RESULTS

The numbers of respondents were seventy; 38 were junior residents, 20 were senior residents and 12 were consultants. Sixty (85.7%) respondent had personally used LMA, while 10 had never used it and they were all junior residents. Classic LMA was most commonly used (88%), followed by intubating LMA (7.5%), and proseal LMA (4.5%). Most of the respondents (67.1%) have used LMA in difficult airway management while 10% of respondents had used it in airway management during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The reason for not using LMA routinely for general anaesthesia was due to unavailability in 15.7% of respondents, inexperience in 8.6% and habitual in 30%.

CONCLUSION

Airway management is a vital discipline in the specialty of anaesthesia. The use of LMA as an airway device in the practice of anaesthesia in our setting is inadequate. Training, re-training and continuous medical education of anaesthetists' very necessary to improve our practice.