Ultrasound Versus Clinical Tests as Predictors of Difficult Endotracheal Intubation in Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Undergoing Elective Surgery Under General Anaesthesia

Tanta University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Difficult Intubation in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05402683

35152/12/21

Details and patient eligibility

About

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is the most serious kind of the sleep-disordered breathing group, characterised by recurrent episodes of partial to complete obstruction of the upper airway resulting in inefficient alveolar gas exchange and desaturation[1].

It is a commonly encountered condition with a reported prevalence of 9-25% in the general population [2].

However, the majority of OSA patients presenting for surgery remain undiagnosed or untreated[3], contributing to a high rate of unexpected adverse airway outcome[4].

The various airway abnormalities represented by OSA include a large tongue, collapsible airway and crowding of the oropharyngeal structures, among others[5].

Accurate airway assessment should always be performed so as to provide appropriate planning and management of expected difficult intubation, but the common clinical screening tests (Mallampati score, inter-incisor distance, mento-hyoid distance, BMI, etc ) have shown low sensitivity and specificity with a limited predictive value, especially if only a single assessment method is used[6].

Ultrasonography could be a highly sensitive and specific tool for prediction of difficult intubation in OSA patients presented for elective surgery by measuring tongue base thickness, distance between lingual arteries, hyo-mental distance and condylar mobility.

Enrollment: 70 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. 21-60 years old
2. ASA I, II, or III
3. STOP-BANG scoring >3

Exclusion criteria

• 1. Age <21 years old 2) patients with cervical spine injury, limited neck mobility, neck swelling 3) patients with lost incisor teeth 4) asymmetric mobility of the temporomandibular joint as in maxillofacial injuries/malignancies prior to surgery on the airway 5) pregnancy