Open AccessNeck fat volume as a potential indicator of difficult intubation: A pilot study
Author(s) -
Romualdo Del Buono,
Lorenzo Sabatino,
Federico Greco
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
saudi journal of anaesthesia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.416
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1658-354X
pISSN - 0975-3125
DOI - 10.4103/sja.sja_398_17
Subject(s) - medicine , laryngoscopy , intubation , airway , gold standard (test) , tracheal intubation , anesthesia , airway management , computed tomography , volume (thermodynamics) , clinical significance , surgery , nuclear medicine , radiology , physics , quantum mechanics
Direct laryngoscopy is the gold standard of the airway management in patients without predicted difficulties. If unpredicted difficulties are encountered instead, different algorithms to follow have been developed. To date, no single predictor is sufficiently valid. In clinical practice, it is used a combination of them to enhance the estimate, and despite the variety of parameters used, not all the difficult intubations are predicted. The aim of this work is to retrospectively analyze neck computed tomography scans of 37 patients who have had tracheal intubation and search for anatomic neck fat compartments that correlate with the intubation difficulty, and eventually find a suitable, clinical parameter that can potentially enhance the prediction of a difficult airway when used in combination of the preexisting scores.