This document is produced in response to questions about the use of supraglottic airways (SGAs) during the current pandemic. The advice that it contains is based on the expert opinion of airway specialists and is meant to be valid for both COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 unknown patients.

The aim is not to tell colleagues how to deliver anaesthesia, but to offer some reassurance for those who wish to continue to use SGAs when clinically appropriate.

There are three phases to the use of an SGA – insertion, maintenance and removal.

SGA insertion may be preceded by mask ventilation of the patient’s lungs, although the need for this can often be avoided by preoxygenation.

SGAs decrease the incidence of airway problems including coughing, hypoxia and airway complications at removal when compared with tracheal extubation, and thereby result in a ‘smoother emergence’.

It is recognised that the evidence base around aerosol generation and SGAs is lacking and therefore must be extrapolated.

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