Prediction of difficult laryngoscopy by ultrasound quantification of Anterior neck soft tissue and pretracheal tissue : An observational analytical study

Airway management is considered to be the most important step during any medical management especially anaesthetic management. Difficulty in airway management is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in anaesthetic practice. Preoperative assessment of airway and predicting the possibility of difficult laryngoscopy and intubation can be useful to avoid undesirable complications.Anaesthetist  have been to trained to predict the difficulty of laryngoscopy by anatomical features. Ultrasound Studies predicting the accuracy of USG quantification of anterior neck soft tissue and pretracheal tissue for the level of difficulty in laryngoscopy are inadequate. In situations where patient is unconscious and non- cooperative clinical screening tests play minimal role in predicting difficult laryngoscopy .In emergency conditions where time is an important factor MRI and CT scan cannot be done, usage of portable ultrasound might be helpful to diagnose difficult airway rapidly. Studies comparing the accuracy of different USG parameters in predicting difficult laryngoscopy are inadequate.

The proposed study included the physical parameters, USG parameters Skin to anterior commissure distance and pretracheal tissue thickness also to assess its predictive accuracy in comparison with skin to hyoid distance, skin to thyrohyoid membrane distance.