BACKGROUND Preoperative evaluation of anatomical landmarks and clinical factors are important in the detection of patients at risk for difficult laryngoscopy. The modified Mallampati test (MMT) and thyromental distance (TMD) are commonly used for this purpose but there are controversies regarding their accuracy. OBJECTIVE The objective of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of MMT ...

Background: The responsibility of the anesthesiologist is to maintain airway patency for better oxygenation. Perhaps the most dangerous incident for the anesthesiologist, are encountering the scenario in which intubation and ventilation in a patient are impossible. The study of mask ventilation is far more limited. The first significant manuscript focused on mask ventilation was published in 20...

UNLABELLED The aim of the study was to determine the predicting tests for difficult airway and difficult intubation in apparently normal patients. METHODS We were using the literature about the specific tests for predicting difficult airway and single parameters that could be a significant test for prediction of difficult or impossible intubation. Clinical risk factors for difficult intubatio...

A photographic version of the Mallampati test was developed and applied to 242 pregnant patients at 12 weeks' gestation and again at 38 weeks' gestation. At 38 weeks the number of grade 4 cases had increased by 34% (P < 0.001). This is in agreement with other evidence which suggests that difficult laryngoscopy is slightly more frequent in obstetrics (1.7%) than in general surgery (1.3%). The in...

BACKGROUND Tracheal intubation in the prone position has previously been reported only as a necessity in a very few emergency situations. It emerged at our clinic as a routine after invention of a test aimed at pinpointing a painful motion segment in patients with chronic low back pain who were candidates for lumbar fusion operation. MATERIAL AND METHODS During a 6-year period 247 consecutive...

Introduction Procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) is used by non-anesthesiologists (NAs) outside of the operating room for several types of procedures. Adverse events during pediatric PSA that pose the most risk to patient safety involve airway compromise. Higher Mallampati scores may indirectly indicate children at risk for airway compromise. Medical governing bodies have proposed guideline...

BACKGROUND One of the main challenges in anesthesiology is difficult intubation. There are many anatomical parameters for evaluating the feasibility of tracheal intubation; one that can reliably predict a difficult intubation is the Cormack-Lehane classification obtained during direct laryngoscopy. This is an invasive procedure that cannot be performed in an awake patient or for pre-anesthetic ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the correlation between anatomical features of the upper airway (evaluated via computed tomography imaging) and the ease of light wand-assisted endotracheal intubation in patients undergoing ear, nose and throat surgery under general anaesthesia. METHODS Mallampati class, laryngoscopic grade, thyromental distance, neck circumference, body mass index, mouth opening and u...

BACKGROUND An increase in Mallampati class is associated with difficult laryngoscopy in obstetrics. The goal of our study was to determine the changes in Mallampati class before, during, and after labour, and to identify predictive factors of the changes. METHODS Mallampati class was evaluated at four time intervals in 87 pregnant patients: during the 8th month of pregnancy (T(1)), placement ...