Efficacy of laryngeal airway mask compared with endotracheal tube in reducing coughing following general anesthesia in adults

Coughing is an airway complication that could affect the outcome of surgery following general anesthesia in adults. In this systematic review, we aimed to study the efficacy of applying laryngeal airway mask (LMA) compared with endotracheal tube (ETT) in reducing the postoperative cough in adults under general anesthesia. PubMed was searched for the relevant articles. Inclusion criteria were all the randomized controlled clinical trials, which used LMA and ETT in adults under general anesthesia. Only English language articles were included in this study with no time limitation. Overall, 15 articles were retrieved, which were relevant with the purpose of this study. Efficacy of LMA in reducing coughing was significantly different with ETT in adults under general anesthesia in various types of surgeries. Calculated number needed to treat (NNT) showed that using LMA would significantly reduce coughing even in one adult patient. Coughing has shown various adverse effects on postoperative main results in some surgeries such as cataract, cranial, etc. Applying LMA could positively decrease postoperative coughing in adults.