An intubating LMA construction features a rigid airway tube wherein curvature
in a single plane establishes essentially an arcuate path of angular extent in
the preferred range of 130, plus or minus 5, which I have found to
be in substantial anatomical conformance with the adult human's airway path, between
a proximal end of the arc at substantial register with the longitudinal midpoint
of the hard palate, and a distal end that faces and is at short offset from the
glottic aperture, it being understood that my findings apply to suitably quantified
allowance for variations in patient-head anatomy, as is for example customary for
different sizes of LMA devices, each of which is adapted to serve one of five selected
patient-size ranges. The proximal end of the rigid tube is suitably a short straight
portion which is tangentially and integrally related to the proximal end of the
arc. And the distal end of the arc is fitted with flexible mask structure of preferably
elastomeric material such as silicone rubber, wherein an internal ramp formation
within the mask structure assures a limited but important measure of further and
stabilized guidance of an ET which has emerged from the distal end of the rigid
tube, such that unguided displacement of the ET (i.e., beyond the ramp) is oriented
to target safe entry of the ET into the glottic opening.
