The Prehospital Practitioner and the Laryngeal Mask Airway: “Are you Keeping Up?”

The laryngeal mask airway (LMA) has gained recognition as an acceptable device for securing the airway of patients during anaesthesia and emergency airway management within the hospital environment. Furthermore, the LMA has been utilised by paramedics in the prehospital setting when endotracheal intubation is either unavailable (untrained personnel) or impossible (failed intubation). Numerous articles have been published debating different techniques of its use and modifications from its original inception. This paper offers a recent review of those articles and presents a balance for the reader to consume. A brief history of the LMA is given, as well as discussion on selection of size, use of a bite block, cuff pressures, the disposable LMA, the intubating LMA, the ProSeal LMA and using cricoid pressure with the LMA insitu.