Aspiration and the laryngeal mask airway: three cases and a review of the literature^†

The primary limitation of the laryngeal mask airway (LMA®)^‡ is that it does not reliably protect the lungs from regurgitated stomach content. We describe three cases of aspiration associated with the LMA, including the first brain injury, the first death, and the first associated with the intubating LMA, and review the 20 specific case reports of aspiration associated with the LMA that we were able to find described in the literature.