Intubation in Obese Patients;

Abstract

To determine the diagnostic accuracy of ratio of neck circumference to thyromental distance to predict the difficult intubation in obese patients by using Intubation difficulty scale as gold standard. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Jinnah Hospital, Department of Anesthesia, Lahore from August 2013 to July 2014. Methodology: 250 patients were included. Ratio of neck circumference to thyromental distance was measured during preoperative assessment in all patients. Results: There were 59.2% males and 40.8% females with mean age of patients was 37.13+11.64 years. 19.2% patients showed difficult intubation and 80.8% easy. Sensitivity of NC/TM was 89.58% and Specificity 72.77% with positive predictive value of 43.88% and Negative predictive value of 96.71%. Conclusion: Neck circumference to thyromental distance ratio is sensitive method for determining the difficult intubation among obese patients.