Invited congress lecture · 2025 · (in English)
Are we prepared for future challenges?
Jonas Åkeson, MD, PhD, EDAIC, ETP — Professor emeritus, Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Lund University
An invited congress lecture by Professor emeritus Jonas Åkeson — co-founder of Stairway Medical — on the future of safe procedural sedation. He sets out the central unmet need: there is currently no medical device to prevent upper-airway occlusion during sedation, so clinicians must rely entirely on manual measures to keep the airway open.
The lecture then presents the proof-of-concept behind the Stairway device, developed by anaesthesiologists and dentists in Malmö: MRI confirmation of increased airway space behind the soft palate in 24 healthy volunteers sedated with versus without the device, together with significantly fewer episodes of airway occlusion (>10 s) both in the 24 volunteers (P = 0.0015) and in 34 surgical patients (P = 0.011).
It concludes with practical take-home messages for safe sedation — informed consent, expired-CO₂ monitoring, careful observation, high-flow oxygen, drug mastery, CPR readiness and prolonged post-sedation supervision.
Presentation in English. Slides available for download below.