The use of flexible laryngeal mask airway for Adenoidectomies: An experience of 814 Paediatric patients

Objective: To assess flexible laryngeal mask airway (F-LMA) use during pediatric adenoidectomies in terms of patient safety, comfort, complication rates and surgeon satisfaction levels.

Methods: Patients who had undergone an elective adenoidectomy after receiving general anesthesia using F-LMA from June 2012 to November 2015 were included. Patients’ demographics and the incidence of perioperative complications were investigated. The surgeon’s satisfaction level was also evaluated by questionnaire.

Results: Eight hundred fourteen patient were included in the study. Conversion from F-LMA to an endotracheal tube was carried out in two patients (0.2%). Airway complications were identified in two patients. The mean duration of stay in the postoperative anesthesia care unit was 17 minutes. All patients were discharged the same day. According to the otolaryngologists F-LMA applications provide a significant reduction in the processing time (100%), postoperative patient comfort is better than when using endotracheal intubation (83.3%) and the consensus was that there should be a complete continuation of the use of the F-LMA (100%) in subsequent adenoidectomies.

Conclusion: Our data show that the use of F-LMA for pediatric adenoidectomies has well tolerability profile and resulted in a lower incidence of complications. We think that the use of F-LMA for pediatric adenoidectomy is safer, simpler and speeder method.