Introduction: Airway management, ventilation, and adequate oxygenation are an essential part of prehospital care. The easiest airway can be the most difficult airway for the inexperienced person, especially in disaster situations where more patients will need airway interventions. The combination of Guedel & BVM or perilaryngeal supraglottic airways (LMA) are two airway management techniques that are used in the field. However, effective ventilation with a combination of Guedel & BVM cannot be provided in inexperienced hands due to air leakage. Regarding LMA, there is a decisional dilemma regarding its use by inexperienced providers in prehospital settings. Therefore, new airway equipment providing both airway control & ventilation is needed for prehospital airway control and ventilation. There is new supraglottic airway equipment, guedel-type cuffed oropharyngeal airway (Tulip airway), which can provide both airway control and ventilation support. The study compares Guedel & BVM, LMA, and Tulip airway on prehospital use for airway management. Methods: The study group included military first aid school students. They used Guedel & BVM, Tulip airway, and LMA on the manikin-based simulator. Ventilation adequacy was assessed visually by inflating the balloon that stimulated the lung. Time from insertion to achieved ventilation, instructor intervention, and maneuver requirement were recorded. Results: The median time from Insertion to achieved ventilation of Tulip airway on manikin was shorter than Guedel & BVM and LMA. Tulip airway requires less instructor intervention and maneuver requirements. Conclusion: If we grade them from basic to advanced, Tulip airway combines Guedel & BVM and LMA. Although the Tulip airway is simpler than LMA, it is as effective as LMA. As providing ventilation with the simplest airway device is important in disaster situations, Tulip airway, as a guedel-type cuffed oropharyngeal airway, can be evaluated for disaster medical care guidelines.
Türkan et al. (Sun,) studied this question.