EPO2-A: Evaluation of Different Pre-Oxygenation Condition in Morbid Obesity: Effect of Position and Positive Pressure Ventilation During General Anesthesia Induction

Obesity prevalence in the population is increasing. Thus a growing number of obese patient need surgical interventions. These patients have a four time higher risk of suffering of serious complication in relation with their airway management compare with non-obese patients. This is explained by an increased incidence of difficulty with the ventilation and intubation of the obese. The time available for the clinician to manage the airway is define by the non hypoxic apnea time. This laps of time is dependent of the oxygen stocks of the patient, which are dependent of the functional residual capacity (FRC) and his oxygen consumption. For a non-obese patient, a normal pre-oxygenation of three minutes at 100% of oxygen allows a non hypoxic apnea time (oxygen saturation > 90%) of 8,9 minutes. However, for the morbidly obese, this time is cut to less than three minutes.

The major goal of the pre-oxygenation is to increase the alveolar partial pressure of oxygen available in the end-expiratory pulmonary volume. This can be done by replacing the nitrogen in the alveolus by oxygen and by increasing the pulmonary stocks, the FRC. It has been demonstrated that the FRC after the induction of anesthesia is cut by half for the obese. This reduction is explained by a diminished thoracic compliance and an increase of the dependent lung regions' atelectasis because of a more cephalic position of the diaphragm.

Various pre-oxygenation methods have been described to prolong the non hypoxic apnea time in the obese population. Some proposed pre-oxygenation strategies with the patient in the head up position (beach chair). It is a position derived from the ramped position described as the best to visualized the obese patients' glottis. Others proposed pre-oxygenation strategies with positive pressure ventilation, but only the supine position has been studied concomitantly.

Individually, these techniques of pre-oxygenation are superior to the combination of supine position and no positive pressure. Indeed, studies demonstrated that the beach chair position (derived from the ramped position) or the positive pressure pre-oxygenation in supine position diminished the time needed to obtain a satisfactory pre-oxygenation (End-expiratory oxygen fraction >0,9) and a longer non hypoxic apnea time. Sill, these strategies have never been combined in the same protocol.

The beach chair position without positive pressure ventilation has become the standard of care because it is the position that allows the best glottis view. Though, it has been shown by Boyce and coll. that the reverse Trendelenburg position, and not the beach chair, increased the non hypoxic apnea time, the recuperation time and the minimal saturation obtained compared to the supine position. We think that there is an advantage to use the reverse Trendelenburg position to optimize the non hypoxic apnea time. Indeed, our hypothesis is that there will be less pressure on the diaphragm in comparison with the beach char position.