Campus Bio-Medico technique for nasolaryngeal ventilation with reinforced laryngeal mask in dental surgery: a patient report

The authors report the usefulness of a prototype nasal laryngeal mask airway (LMA) used successfully in a disabled 20-year-old woman with severe psychomotor retardation and a compromised airway with predictable indexes of impossible tracheal intubation in direct laryngoscopy. A 16-ch Foley catheter was inserted through the patient's left nostril and guided through her mouth. A size-3 reinforced LMA was positioned and connected to the distal end of the catheter. The LMA-reinforced tube was removed in a retrograde fashion by pulling the catheter up with the patient breathing spontaneously. The duration of the entire operation was 3 hours 20 minutes, and the patient was able to breathe spontaneously and at a 98% saturation average. Nasal reinforced LMA seems to be an interesting solution in patients undergoing 1-day dental or maxillofacial surgery, but is especially appropriate when nasotracheal intubation is too invasive or technically impossible.