During general anesthesia, the most commonly used way of keeping airway patency is endotracheal intubation. However, for relatively short and simple surgery, less invasive method using laryngeal tube (LT) or laryngeal mask airway (LMA) is generally accepted and the comparative study between the two apparatus is now being actively done. In this study, we evaluated the usefulness of two apparatus from pediatric patients.

We select 58 children from one to ten years old who are to be given short operation and then anesthetize 30 children by using LT and 28 children by LMA. The size of LT and LMA is chosen by body weight according to the manufacturer's recommendation. We evaluated the seal pressure of LT and LMA, ventilatory efficiency, attempt number, facility of insertion, proper positioning confirmed by fiberoptic bronchoscopy, and complications.

There was no statistically significant difference in the attempt number and facility of insertion between the two groups. LT and LMA were both properly positioned and the ventilation efficiency was not different from the two groups. The LT group shows higher seal pressure than the LMA group and there is no correlation between sealing pressure and ventilation efficiency. There is close correlation between bronchoscopic grade and ventilatory efficiency. complications are not different between two groups.

Both LT and LMA are useful for simple surgery of children and LT has higher sealing pressure.