Middle East journal of anaesthesiology
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Middle East J Anaesthesiol · Oct 2000
Clinical TrialA new cut-off point of thyromental distance for prediction of difficult airway.
Difficult intubation, often unexpected, remains a primary concern for the anesthesiologist. None of the bedside tests have proven to be efficacious and highly predictive. The prupose of this study was to correlate the full range of thyromental distance with both the Cormack grade and the Mallampati score. ⋯ Patients with a thyromental distance greater than 4 cm can be easily intubated. In contrast, when the TMD < or = 4 cm, tracheal intubation is difficult in 48% of patients if the Mallampati score is 1,2 and in 79% if the Mallampati score is 3 or 4.