To evaluate the accuracy and efficacy of ultrasound guided airway assessment in comparison to clinical parameters in anticipating difficult intubation in patients with obesity

Airwayassessment is an important aspect of pre-anesthetic check-up. Presently everyand all predictions of difficult airway is based majorly on clinical assessmentof the airway. Airway examination tests like Modified- Mallamapati grading, ,thyro-mental distance, inter-incisor gap, neck mobility and sterno-mentaldistance  are  used  togetherto overcome their finite sensitivity and specificity to accurately assessdifficult laryngoscopies and  intubations.Even after using multiple clinical screening tests a significant amount ofcases present with unanticipated difficult laryngoscopy.

Thesearch for a better, cheaper, sensitive, specific and non-invasive tools forairway assessment to avoid the above restrictions of clinical airwayexamination tests is the need of the hour especially in patients where clinicalassessment is sub-par like those with obesity i.e a BMI more than 30 (obese patients),short bulky neck, short stature, skeletal deformities to name a few. Portablenon-invasive assessment with USG in obese patients can aid in accurate assessmentof airway and eliminate the risk of unanticipated difficult bag and maskventilation as well as intubation thus lowering the risk of CVCI incidences andhelp better prepare the plan of anesthesia.

Thus, here we will be conducting an observational study to determine whether ultrasound guided airway assessment is a better predictor of difficult airway as compared to clinical parameters in patients with BMI more than 30.