Cuffed endotracheal tubes – a comparison with i-gel 02 Feb 2009

A number of studies, case reports and correspondence relating to the use of i-gel has already been published, but this is the first study to make a comparison of the device to cuffed tracheal tubes during pressure-controlled ventilation. In this study, published in the BJA, twenty-five patients were given a standard anaesthetic, followed by insertion of an i-gel. The lungs were ventilated at three different pressures and the difference between the inspired and expired tidal volumes used to calculate the leak volume and leak fraction. The i-gel was then removed and replaced with a conventional tracheal tube, for which similar readings were taken. The results were then compared. From the data taken, the authors concluded that, ‘compared with a tracheal tube there is no significant difference in the gas leak when using an i-gel during PCV with moderate airway pressures’. The complete study can be obtained at http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/2/264. Ref: Uppal V, Fletcher G, Kinsella J: Comparison of the i-gel with the cuffed tracheal tube during pressure-controlled ventilation. BJA 2009 102(2):264-268.