Dimensions of intubating laryngeal mask airway tracheal tube

I read with interest the recent article demonstrating the ease of insertion of an intubating laryngeal mask (ILMA) tracheal tube compared with a standard Portex tracheal tube in patients having an oral fibreoptic intubation (Lucas & Yentis. Anaesthesia 2000; 55: 358–61). When performing fibreoptic intubation there are important differences between the ILMA tracheal tube ( Table 1) and the more commonly used 6.0 or 6.5 reinforced tracheal tube that are worth considering. Nasal intubation is often preferred in these patients and these differences could be significant when using this route. The larger external diameter could make nasal intubation more traumatic and possibly more difficult. At present, the size 7.0 ILMA tracheal tube is the smallest ILMA tube available. A smaller ILMA tracheal tube may prove to be superior to the reinforced tracheal tube but this remains to be proved.