Comparative evaluation of blind supraglottic airway device insertion versus videolaryngoscope-guided technique in adults undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Objectives: A videolaryngoscope may decrease the high incidence of aberrant positioning of supraglottic airway devices (SAD) inserted with blind techniques. We aimed to compare Igel insertion characteristics between blind and videolaryngoscope-assisted techniques.

Methods: In this study 70 adult patients scheduled for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy under general anesthesia were randomly divided into blind (Group B,  = 35) and videolaryngoscope-guided (Group V,  = 35) Igel insertion. Oropharyngeal leak pressure (OLP), fiber-optic view score, time for device insertion, first attempt success, ease of insertion, ventilation score, maneuvers, and adverse events were assessed.

Results: OLP was significantly higher in group V at 1 and 10 minutes (24.80 ± 1.91 vs 21.71 ± 2.37;  < 0.001 and 32.60 ± 2.32 vs 30.68 ± 2.93;  = 0.006). The mean fiberoptic scoring (3.63 ± 0.49 vs 3.38 ± 0.49;  = 0.043), a fibreoptic score of grade 4 (24 vs 13;  = 0.012) and time-to-device insertion (25.6 ± 3.5 vs 21.7 ± 4.1;  < 0.001) was considerably higher in group V. First-attempt success ( = 0.630), ease of insertion of SAD ( = 0.540) and nasogastric tube ( = 1), ventilation score ( = 1), number of maneuvers required ( = 1), number of attempts ( = 0.592) and postoperative complications ( = 0.800) were comparable in the two groups.

Conclusion: The videolaryngoscope-guided technique provided superior airway sealing and reduced malposition of Igel without an increase in adverse events compared to the blind technique. However, this was at the cost of increased time of device insertion.

Clinical Trial Registration: www.ctri.nic.in identifier is CTRI/2022/10/046269.