The laryngeal mask in cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a district general hospital: a preliminary communication.

For a period of 13 months adult patients sustaining a cardiopulmonary arrest in the Royal East Sussex Hospital, Hastings, were attended by nursing staff and Operating Department Assistants (ODAs) specially trained in the use of the laryngeal mask (LM) as an airway adjunct. The LM was used 41 times in 40 patients. The LM failed on only two occasions, and was successful in three cases where endotracheal intubation proved impossible. No instances of aspiration were directly attributable to LM use. LM trained staff adopted its use enthusiastically, and skills acquired during training appeared not to fade over the period of the study. These results are considered to justify the performance of a large-scale trial of use of the LM in cardiac arrest patients.