-
- S K Samra, M A Schork, and F C Guinto.
- Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor 48109-0048, USA.
- J Clin Anesth. 1995 Aug 1; 7 (5): 373-9.
Study ObjectivesTo study whether a detailed radiographic examination of neck and upper airway can help identify normal looking patients in whom endotracheal intubation may be difficult; determine whether such parameters as identified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can also be identified in a soft tissue radiograph; and to study the correlation between oropharyngeal appearance, based on Mallampati's classification, and laryngoscopic findings in a large number of patients requiring endotracheal intubation.DesignProspective.SettingUniversity medical center.Patients20 adult patients in whom an unanticipated difficult endotracheal intubation was encountered, and a control group of 20 patients in whom endotracheal intubation was easily accomplished.InterventionsDifficult-to-intubate patients were identified according to prospectively established criteria. Control subjects, in whom the trachea was easily intubated, were matched for age, gender, height, weight, and oropharyngeal appearance.Measurements And Main ResultsIn all 40 study patients, a soft tissue radiograph and an MRI scan of the neck were obtained. We measured 21 parameters from both radiographic studies. There were no significant differences between the two groups in 20 of 21 measured parameters on MRI scans and soft tissue radiographs. Only one measurement--the distance between the uppermost visible part of the airway and the posterior pharyngeal wall (measured from MRI scans only)--between the two groups achieved statistical significance. The values recorded from MRI and soft tissue radiographs were not significantly different. Airway grading system first suggested by Mallampati had a fair correlation with laryngoscopy findings associated with a difficult endotracheal intubation.ConclusionsNo significant difference between the two groups could be identified on soft tissue radiography or MRI scans.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*
,_underline_
or**bold**
. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>
and subscript<sub>text</sub>
. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3.
, hyphens-
or asterisks*
. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
- Images can be included with:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)
inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]
to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote.
.