Background
Difficult intubation, for a trained skillful anesthesia personal, is defined on the following three simple terms: 1) more than one attempt while intubation. 2) Takes more than 30 sec while Intubation. 3) Special equipments are used for intubation. If only one of these is found existing, it would mean there is difficult intubation.
Aim of study
The aim of the study was to find out and compare the reliability of two preoperative predictor tests, for difficult intubation, Modified Mallampati test (MMT) and Upper Lip Bite Test.
Material and methods Patients presenting for general anesthesia undergoing elective surgeries requiring tracheal intubation, ASA 1, 2, 3 and 4, patients of age 17 to 45 years old were included. Edentulous patients were excluded because the upper lip bite test can’t be applied to them. Patients with limited cervical movement were excluded as they require special technique for intubation and have already a difficult airway for laryngoscopy as well intubation. Pregnant patients and patients with anatomical deformities were also excluded because they have difficult intubation. And also, patients requiring rapid sequence induction for intubation were excluded.
Results: This study shows that most of the difficult cases were predicted incorrectly. However, Modified Mallampati test (MMT) results showed less contradiction with prediction, when compared to Upper Lip Bite Test, so it came out to be more reliable.
Conclusion
The study concluded that Modified Mallampati test is more reliable as compared to upper limb bite test
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