i-gel - News & Events

Three anaesthetists from the Central Manchester University Hospital in the UK report on the results of an evaluation they conducted on i-gel in 300 patients. The letter, published this month in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology, confirms first time insertion with i-gel was achieved in <5 seconds in 290 of the 300 patients. Three patients with difficult airway underwent  successful fibreoptic endotracheal intubation through i-gel and all patients underwent adequate pressure mode ventilation with airway pressures of 10-30cm H2O initially and  spontaneous breathing subsequently. In addition, lubricated gastric tubes were easily inserted through the gastric channel at the first attempt in all 80 cases where this was performed. A very interesting letter on a significant number of patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18534042

Ref: Evaluation of the i-gel airway in 300 patients. European Journal of Anaesthesiology 2008;1-2. Jun 6:1-2.

A letter published in the July edition Anaesthesia, entitled ‘Aspiration recognition with an i-gel airway’, (link to the abstract here) submitted by Liew, John and Ahmed from Nevill Hall Hospital in Gwent,  reports on a the case of a young male patient undergoing surgery where i-gel helped with the recognition and management of regurgitation.

During the case, gastric contents were noticed to be coming out of the gastric channel. No secretions were evident in the airway channel. As regurgitation continued, surgery was paused and and the patients airway secured following rapid sequence induction. ‘Laryngoscopy revealed a clear view of the trachea (Cormack & Lehane grade 1) with no evidence of gastric contents’. The patient remained stable throuout the remainder of the operation. There was no clinical evidence of aspiration and a post-op chest X-ray revealed clear lung fields. It transpired the patient had consumed a can of Coca-Cola a few hours prior to the operation, something he failed to mention during  a pre-operative visit! An interesting case suggesting i-gel provided valuable assistance with the recognition and management of regurgitation.

Ref: . Liew, B. John, S. Ahmed (2008) Aspiration recognition with an i-gel airway
Anaesthesia 63 (7) , 786–786

This case study describes successful fibre-optic guided tracheal intubation through the i-gel in two uncooperaitve adult patients with learning disability and predicted difficult airway. The i-gel maintained the airway immediately after induction, allowing oxygenation and ventilation. Fibreoptic identification of the laryngeal inlet was successful on the first attempt and a tracheal tube inserted into the trachea, without complication, in both patients.

You can download the whole paper here (122k PDF)

Inventor of the i-gel, Dr. Muhammad Nasir will be speaking at the ABBSAT conference in Leipzig, Germany. This event takes place on the 20th-21st June and representatives from Intersurgical GmbH will be in attendance, along with members of our UK team.

Dr Nasir, i-gel inventor will be speaking about the research and development of the i-gel at the 9th Wexham Advanced Airway Workshop at Wexham Park Hopsital in Slough on the 16th June.

DAS overview of the workshop:
This workshop is geared towards trainees wishing to refresh and update skills in airway management. There are lectures, interactive discussions and over 4 hours of hands-on workshop training. The course provides intensive practical tuition on manikin and animal models. There is a highly experienced faculty who have been conducting very popular airway workshops in Hungary and Estonia and Wexham too!

If you missed a chance to see i-gel in Copenhagen at Euroanaesthesia 2008 you can see all the pictures from the event at the online gallery here. As you can see there was plenty of interest in the i-gel and many visitors took the opportunity to talk to the inventor, Dr. Mohammad Aslam Nasir.