L

Lifelines: umbrella term for facemask, supraglottic airway & tracheal tube, the 3 options for achieving ventilation via the upper airway. The term ‘lifelines’ has been adopted from the Vortex Approach as there is no other consistently used collective term for these 3 options in the literature. The literature sometimes refers to these as different ‘techniques’ or ‘methods’ for establishing an airway but this terminology leaves potential for ambiguity as awake tracheal intubation, use of a hyperangulated videolaryngoscope and direct laryngoscopy might all legitimately be considered different ‘techniques’ for establishing an airway, despite all referring to the same ventilation lifeline. Similarly referring to them as different ‘types’ of airway may cause confusion as supraglottic airways from different manufacturers or with different design features (e.g. those providing additional protection from aspiration or those facilitating use of the supraglottic airway as a conduit for tracheal intubation) might legitimately be thought of as different airway ‘types’ despite referring to same ventilation lifeline.