A prospective study to compare intubation prediction score versus Wilsons score for the prediction of difficult endotracheal intubation

Introduction

Prediction of difficult airway is of utmost importance to anaesthesiologist in the operating room as an unanticipated difficult airway leads to severe adverse events. Prediction of difficult airway is clinically done by independent bedside tests but lack accuracy. Moreover, most airway assessment scores are cumbersome to perform at the bedside and have interobserver variability because of subjective parameters. Therefore, there is a need to search for a simple score with objective parameters that can be performed at the bedside. 

Aim:

To determine the diagnostic accuracy of the Wilson score and Intubation prediction score for predicting difficult airway.

Materials and Method:

A prospective single-blind study will be conducted involving 120 consecutive patients aged 18 to 60 years who are undergoing surgery requiring general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation. All patients will have their airways evaluated preoperatively using the Wilson Score and Intubation Prediction Score. General anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation will be performed on all participants. The ease of laryngoscopy and intubation will be assessed using the Intubation Difficulty Scale, where an IDS score greater than 5 indicates a difficult airway. In this study we will calculate the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy of the two predictive tests for identifying a difficult airway.