Comparison of safe apnea time with and without Positive End-Expiratory Pressure during face mask ventilation in adult patients undergoing general anesthesia.

Face Mask Ventilation is done immediately after the induction of general anesthesia, there are various techniques to do face mask ventilation and one of which is administration of positive end expiratory pressure during face mask ventilation. Here we are trying to compare the duration of safe apnea time after administration of positive end expiratory pressure and without it and determine which has more duration. This can help the anesthesiologists to follow a standard technique to counter any unanticipated cannot ventilate cannot intubate situation if at all it happens. The methodology will be, after explaining the subjects who are posted for elective surgery about the study and getting informed consent. The subjects are divided into 2 groups (group P - PEEP of 6cmH2O and group C - PEEP of 0cmH2O) using block randomization and allotted into 1 of the 2 groups. The patient will be taken to operation theatre and general anesthesia will be induced after which face mask ventilation will be done using the ventilator and according to their groups. After 3 minutes of face mask ventilation the timer will started to document the apnea time i.e., the duration taken for SpO2 to drop from 100% to 95%. We hypothesize that the duration of apnea will be longer in group P when compared to group C. We are also trying to see the difference in PaO2/FiO2 ratio between the 2 groups