CAMPUS BIO-MEDICO TECHNIQUE FOR NASOLARYNGEAL VENTILATION WITH REINFORCED LARYNGEAL MASK IN DENTAL SURGERY - A PATIENT REPORT

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.