Comparison of the airway complications of subtypes of laryngeal mask airway and i-gel in child patients under general anaesthesia: a protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised control trials

INTRODUCTION: Laryngeal mask airway (LMA), an alternative to traditional tracheal intubation, is widely used in clinical practice and is considered to be an effective device for airway management. LMA and i-gel have been widely used in anaesthesia and emergency situations in children. Some systematic reviews have evaluated the efficacy of LMA and i-gel in children, but they have not shown consistent results in clinical performance. This study aims to evaluate the airway complications of all subtypes of LMA and i-gel in child patients under general anaesthesia using a Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: PubMed, EMBASE.com, the Cochrane library, Web of Science and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database will be searched from inception to January 2019. We will include prospective randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that reported the subtypes of LMA and i-gel regardless of sample size. The risk of bias assessment of the included RCTs will be conducted according to the Cochrane Handbook V.5.1.0. A Bayesian NMA will be performed using WinBUGS V.1.4.3. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation will be used to explore the quality of evidence. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval and patient consent are not required as this study is an NMA based on published trials. The results of this NMA will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019127668.