Laryngeal Mask Anesthesia: Principles and Practice

This book is the second edition of a successful monograph published in 1997 as The Laryngeal Mask Airway: A Review and Practical Guide. The first edition was written by Drs Brimacombe, Brain and Berry, whereas the second edition is solely by Brimacombe. The most striking changes from the first edition are that it has been greatly expanded (from 75 000 to 450 000 words!) and has become a systematic review. The author states in the preface that the primary goal of this book is to provide the reader with a concise summary of all knowledge about the laryngeal mask and other extraglottic airway devices, and to offer complete practical guidelines about their use. A secondary goal is to rigorously analyse this knowledge in order to clarify our level of understanding, and to facilitate the construction of evidence-based practical guidelines. The book consists of 22 chapters. It starts with a 120 yr history of the extraglottic airways including the laryngeal mask airway. This is certainly the first textbook which describes in detail (with clear photographs) the development of extraglottic airways, and many will enjoy reading the story of how the laryngeal mask airway was invented by Brain. I feel that this book would be worth buying for this chapter alone. Chapters 2–21 cover every topic relating to the laryngeal mask airway: the relevant anatomical structures, the physiological and pathological effects, tracheal intubation through the laryngeal mask airway, the use during anaesthesia, during cardiopulmonary resuscitation, in the intensive care unit, the role in the difficult airway, educational issues, and reported problems with the use of the laryngeal mask. In the last chapter, the efficacies of the other extraglottic airway devices are analysed. In addition to these 22 chapters, there are two stop-press chapters to cover the most recent publications. This book is written as a systematic review of over 3000 articles on the extraglottic airways. Meta-analysis was conducted whenever there were three or more studies. Where there are more than five studies on the same topic, the information is presented as a table with textual summary. Each table shows not only results but also the number of subjects studied and short research methods, so that readers can easily assess a significance of each study. The literature analysis is usually followed by a concluding statement. In addition to the literature analysis, whenever possible, there are evidence-based practical guidelines, which are supported by over 250 clear colour illustrations. Therefore, this book is both comprehensive and practical. Each chapter starts with an index of contents and ends with a list of the meta-analytical findings and a quick reference that provides summarized information about each subsection. Using a single author has minimized repetition between chapters by presenting full information in the most relevant and providing a brief summary in the less relevant chapters. Extensive cross-referencing facilitates rapid access to key information. In addition, a black dot after a title indicates that there is new information about that topic in the stop-press chapter. Overall, this book has achieved its intended goal with great success. This second edition should be an essential resource for researchers in the field of extraglottic airway management. In addition, editors and assessors of journals will find this book indispensable, as it shows unambiguously what we know and what we do not about the extraglottic airways. Books of this kind should be used frequently to teach or to acquire skills, rather than just read at libraries. However, in this respect, this second edition might be too heavy to carry around. Nevertheless, busy clinicians will also find the well-summarized practical guidelines, concluding statements, meta-analysis and quick references useful. I recommend that all major libraries should ensure that this book is readily available. All in all, an excellent book.