King Airway, anything you don't like at all?

[eggshen]

Wondering if anyone has anything bad to say about the King airway. I'm not pushing it at all but just wondering. We may be adding it and I lam looking for info. I have all the good stuff, just looking for drawbacks.

Egg

 

[Markhk]

Egg,

I've heard a lot of people bad mouth the King airway for a variety of reasons, of which I'm not sure is all founded. Some reasons are more economical reasons, or because people don't like change. I personally don't have an opinion since I've never used it before.

But here are things I keep hearing:
- Size. There are 3 sizes, unlike the Combitube which has two
- The device is actually not much cheaper than the Combitube ($38 vs. $54), and since you need to stock 3 sizes, the cost saving is minimal.
- Unlike the LMA, there isn't a size for pediatric patients
-Theoretical possibility of accidental tracheal placement

 

[Grady_emt]

We stock the King in all 3 sizes on our units. I have had mixed experiences with them, and my partner (old school gal) hates them. Theoretically they are insert, inflate, and ventilate, but we have had problems with using the reccomended size for a given pt and still not having a good seal. Evidentely there are others that have had issues with them. They were to replace the CombiTube on our units, but they have begun re-stocking the Combi's on our units after only 6 months of the King.

 

[Epi-do]

We currently have King airways on our trucks. Since I typically have a medic with me though, I have never used one since the medic opts to intubate if it is a situation where it is warrented. I've only ever used a combi-tube once that I can recall, and it was several years ago, so I can't really comment one way or the other on a comparison between the two different devices.