Aspiration recognition: an interesting case for i-gel! 20 Jun 2008

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