Background: Providing anaesthesia in prone position is a challenging task for an anaesthesiologist. Although the favourable technique of airway management has been endotracheal tube (ETT), alternative airway management with Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) has also been described. In the present study we compared use of LMA and ETT for surgeries in prone position.

Material and Method: Study includes prospective analysis of 60 patients who underwent prone surgeries and were randomly divided into two groups of 30 each. Group I (LMA) - Patients underwent prone surgeries with classic LMA on spontaneous ventilation Group II (ETT) -Patients underwent prone surgeries with ETT under controlled ventilation. Time from induction of anaesthesia to start of surgery, time of recovery from anaesthesia after completion of surgery, number of complications and the haemodynamic parameters were recorded.

Results: We observed significant reduction in induction to start of surgery time as well as recovery time in Group I (LMA) as compared to Group II (ETT) which results in decreased anaesthetic exposure duration in group I. There was better haemodynamic stability in Group I (LMA) as compared to Group II (ETT) along with marginal reduction (statistically non significant) in frequency of complications.

Conclusion: LMA minimizes the total time duration of anaesthesia during prone surgeries with better haemodynamic stability.