title: An overview on the use of the laryngeal mask airway amongst anaesthesia practitioners in a developing country.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study is to provide an overview on the use of the Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) amongst anaesthesia practitioners in Nigeria
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a multicentre questionnaire based study involving eight tertiary health care institutions in Nigeria. The questionnaires were administered to anaesthetists. They were standardised open- and close-ended questions which were completed in person. The questionnaire was subdivided into a set of questions which include: status of the anaesthetist; the routine use of LMA in general anaesthesia and as a device for airway management in difficult airway. Statistical analyses were done by simple percentages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The numbers of respondents were seventy; 38 were junior residents, 20 were senior residents and 12 were consultants. Sixty (85.7%) respondent had personally used LMA, while 10 had never used it and they were all junior residents. Classic LMA was most commonly used (88%), followed by intubating LMA (7.5%), and proseal LMA (4.5%). Most of the respondents (67.1%) have used LMA in difficult airway management while 10% of respondents had used it in airway management during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The reason for not using LMA routinely for general anaesthesia was due to unavailability in 15.7% of respondents, inexperience in 8.6% and habitual in 30%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Airway management is a vital discipline in the specialty of anaesthesia. The use of LMA as an airway device in the practice of anaesthesia in our setting is inadequate. Training, re-training and continuous medical education of anaesthetists' very necessary to improve our practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Faculty of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Enugu campus, Nigeria. faonyekwulu@yahoo.com
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Onyekwulu
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Nwosu
mesh_terms: D058109:Airway Management / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000776:Anesthesiology; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003906:Developing Countries; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal; D017214:Laryngeal Masks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009549:Nigeria; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'