F. Agro et al., CAMPUS BIO-MEDICO TECHNIQUE FOR NASOLARYNGEAL VENTILATION WITH REINFORCED LARYNGEAL MASK IN DENTAL SURGERY - A PATIENT REPORT, The Journal of craniofacial surgery, 9(4), 1998, pp. 383-387
The authors report the usefulness of a prototype nasal laryngeal mask
airway (LMA) used successfully in a disabled 20-year-old woman with se
vere psychomotor retardation and a compromised airway with predictable
indexes of impossible tracheal intubation in direct laryngoscopy. A 1
6-ch Foley catheter was inserted through the patient's left nostril an
d guided through her mouth. A size-3 reinforced LMA was positioned and
connected to the distal end of the catheter. The LMA-reinforced tube
was removed in a retrograde fashion by pulling the catheter up with th
e patient breathing spontaneously. The duration of the entire operatio
n was 3 hours 20 minutes, and the patient was able to breathe spontane
ously and at a 98% saturation average. Nasal reinforced LMA seems to b
e an interesting solution in patients undergoing 1-day dental or maxil
lofacial surgery, but is especially appropriate when nasotracheal intu
bation is too invasive or technically impossible.