Prospective Single Blinded Study Of Six Airway Assessment Tests Compared Individually With Cormack & Lehane Score In Predicting Difficult Intubation (original) (raw)

Problem of unanticipated difficult intubation is worldwide and search continues for tests that are reliable, accurate & rapid to predict difficult intubation. Our aim was to compare the ability to predict difficult intubation from six preoperative airway tests-Upper lip bite test, Modified Mallampati, Interincisor gap, Head & Neck movements, Thyromental distance, Ratio of height to Thyromental distance, compared individually & to confirm the same with Cormack Lehane score for difficult intubation. Airway was assessed in preanesthetic checkup using these six tests by the principle investigator & anesthesiologist assessing glottic exposure was blinded from the preoperative test results. Sensitivity, specificity, positive & negative predictive values & accuracy of each tests was calculated. Statistical significance was compared using Kappa statistics & p value <0.05 was considered significant. All the tests were significant, of which Modified Mallampati showed maximum agreement with gold standard Cormack Lehane score. However, a combination of tests in parallel is more sensitive and has higher predictivity than single tests alone.