The contribution and feasibility of the measurement of preoperative neck circumference and acromio-axillo-suprasternal norch index in predicting difficult airway in adult patients with obesity

THE CONTRIBUTION AND FEASIBILITY OF THE MEASUREMENT OF PREOPERATIVE NECK CIRCUMFERENCE AND ACROMIO-AXILLO-SUPRASTERNAL NOTCH INDEX IN PREDICTING DIFFICULT AIRWAYS IN ADULT PATIENTS WITH OBESITY Obesity is becoming a health problem that is encountered more commonly every day, and the frequency of surgical interventions carried out on obese patients is also increasing. One of the most common problems seen in obese patients is the difficulty encountered in the airway management during general anesthesia. Patients prepared for surgery require objective and reliable tests and examination methods that are easy to perform, to measure and to evaluate during preoperative assessment. The aim of this thesis is to determine the incidence of difficult intubation in adult obese patients, to investigate the contribution and feasibility of the measurement of preoperative neck circumference and acromio-axillo-suprasternal index in predicting difficult airways. 100 Obese and 100 non-obese patients who had undergone a surgical operation under general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation at Başkent University Istanbul Medical and Research Center between January 2017 and February 2018 were included in the prospective and observational study. Patients were above 18 years of age and were ASA group I-III. Patients in both groups were divided into four subgroups in terms of the neck circumference and acromio-axillo-suprasternal notch index (AASI). Patients' demographic characteristics, mouth opening, Mallampati classification (MLP), presence of mandibular protrusion, measurement of thyromental distance, presence of neck restriction, measurement of neck circumference, type of the planned operation, presence of any comorbidity and acromio-axillo-suprasternal notch index were recorded preoperatively. Intraoperative evaluation included difficulty in ventilation with the mask, intubation method, number of the intubation attempts, number of the persons attempting intubation, Cormack-Lehane grade (C-L), medications administered and intubation difficulty scale. There was a high linear correlation between difficult intubation and CL in all patient groups (r=0.622, p=0.0001), low to moderate correlation with neck circumference (r=0.322, pKeyword: Anestezi = Anesthesia ; Boyun = Neck ; Cerrahi = Surgery ; Entübasyon = Intubation ; Entübasyon-intratrakeal = Intubation-intratracheal ; Obezite = Obesity