A Comparative Study of Haemodynamic Responses to Endotracheal Tube and Laryngeal Mask Usage Under General Anaesthesia

BACKGROUNDEndotracheal tube usage has become an integral part of the anaesthesiologist's contribution to the patient care.Endotracheal intubation is translaryngeal placement of endotracheal tube into the trachea.Laryngeal mask airway insertion is an alternative to the endotracheal intubation for maintaining airway and anaesthesia.Rapid haemodynamic changes may be harmful to the patients with ischaemic heart disease, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease.Along with the haemodynamic responses, the placement of the endotracheal tube and laryngeal mask airway will result in significant post-operative complications of which sore throat, dysphonia and dysphagia are common.Aim -Comparison of haemodynamic responses to endotracheal intubation/extubation and laryngeal mask airway insertion/removal and incidence of sore throat, dysphagia and dysphonia post-operatively. MATERIALS AND METHODSThe study was conducted on 60 adult male patients undergoing surgery under general anaesthesia at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Warangal. RESULTSIn the present study, the range for age in Group I was 19 to 42 years and in Group II was 17 to 44 years.The range for weight was 64 to 80 kg in Group I and 46 to 75 in Group II.The demographic data was comparable in both the groups.In both the groups, there was slight increase in heart rate, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial blood pressure and rate pressure product.From the standard error of difference between two means, the P value of only systolic blood pressure falls < 0.001, so it is statistically significant.Other parameters are comparable in the two groups.In Group I, all the haemodynamic values increased significantly by 14%.In Group II, the increase was by 5% which is less in comparison to Group I.The rate pressure product was near to 15,000 in Group I.The rise in parameters in Group II was low.From the standard error of difference between two means, the P value of all parameters fall < 0.001, so statistically significant. CONCLUSIONPost-operative laryngopharyngeal complaints of cough, sore throat, dysphonia incidence were more in the endotracheal tube than the Laryngeal Mask Airway.Dysphagia was more common post-operatively in the Laryngeal Mask Airway group.Laryngeal Mask Airway may be used for airway management during anaesthesia in patients in whom marked pressor response would be deleterious.