Essentials of airway management, oxygenation, and ventilation: part 2: advanced airway devices: supraglottic airways.

Abstract

Offices and outpatient dental facilities must be properly equipped with devices for airway management, oxygenation, and ventilation. Part 1 in this series on emergency airway management focused on basic and fundamental considerations for supplying supplemental oxygen to the spontaneously breathing patient and utilizing a bag-valve-mask system including nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal airways to deliver oxygen under positive pressure to the apneic patient. This article will review the evolution and use of advanced airway devices, specifically supraglottic airways, with the emphasis on the laryngeal mask airway, as the next intervention in difficult airway and ventilation management. The final part of the series (part 3) will address airway evaluation, equipment and devices for tracheal intubation, and invasive airway procedures.