Acute cardiac care & resuscitation

Airway management with a supraglottic airway device during resuscitation by basic life support providers: a systematic review

ResuscitationPublished systematic review

Pooled result · Survival to hospital discharge or 30 days (randomised trials)Result — go to the resultRelative risk 1.28 95% CI 0.46–3.55

Authors' conclusion

A review of current evidence reported no evidence of benefit of SGA compared with BVM use by BLS-trained providers. Considerable heterogeneity was observed among the studies, and it was not possible to compare outcomes between SGA type. Data are lacking for first rescuers and first responders.

Study context

Population
Basic Life Support (BLS) providers during adult in-hospital or out-of-hospital cardiac arreststudies met inclusion criteria (3 randomised trials, 13 observational studies) · randomised trials 3 · observational studies 13
Participants
16 studies
Comparison
SGA use compared with bag-valve-mask ventilation by BLS providers
Outcome
Survival to hospital discharge or 30 days (randomised trials)
Methodological detailsNarrative synthesis followed Synthesis without meta-analysis guidelines, certainty of evidence was rated using GRADE
  • Narrative synthesis followed Synthesis without meta-analysis guidelines
  • Certainty of evidence was rated using GRADE

Pooled result

As reported in the abstract

Relative risk

1.28

95% CI 0.46–3.55

SGAvs BVM
RR 1.28 (95% CI 0.46–3.55)

Further pooled results

Neurological outcomes, survival at discharge or 30 days, and return of spontaneous circulation (observational studies)

Inconsistent findings and no clear benefit of SGA use
  • Very low-certainty evidence

Chest compression fraction

One randomised trial suggested a higher chest compression fraction with SGAs

Records screened

Records screened
11,310
  • Meta-analysis was not feasible for observational studies due to substantial heterogeneity

Parts of this Brief are withheld: the automatic checks could not confirm them against the abstract.

Original publication

Airway management with a supraglottic airway device during resuscitation by basic life support providers: a systematic review. Resuscitation. Published 26 May 2026. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2026.111152

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