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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · J Neuroanaesth Crit Care 2021; 08(01): 040-044
DOI: 10.1055/s-0039-1692550
Original Article

Assessment of Airway in Patients with Acromegaly Undergoing Surgery: Predicting Successful Tracheal Intubation

Indu Kapoor
1   Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care, Neurosciences Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
,
Charu Mahajan
1   Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care, Neurosciences Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
,
Hemanshu Prabhakar
1   Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care, Neurosciences Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
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Abstract

Background In the field of anesthesia, acromegaly is considered a cause of difficult tracheal intubation and airway management. There is a high probability of unanticipated difficult intubation in acromegalic patients despite a lower percentage of patients being identified preoperatively as having a difficult airway. In this study, we carried out various airway assessment tests preoperatively and during induction of anesthesia to find out the predictors of easy tracheal intubation in patients with acromegaly.

Methods All patients of either sex, diagnosed as a case of acromegaly and scheduled to undergo pituitary surgery were enrolled over a period of 3 years. Various airway assessment tests were performed prior to surgery, which included modified Mallampati (MP) classification (sitting and supine), mouth opening (MO), upper lip bite test (ULBT), neck movement (NM), thyromental (TM) distance, thyrohyoid (TH) distance, sternomental (SM) distance, hyomental (HM) distance, length of upper incisors (IL), receding mandible (RM), any history of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), mask ventilation (MV), Cormack-Lehane (CL) III and IV, and external laryngeal manipulation (ELM). Results were reported as odds ratios (95% confidence interval [CI]). The p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results A total of 42 patients were enrolled over a period of 3 years. The male-to-female ratio was 19:23 with a mean age of 37.95 years and mean weight of 72.7 kg. Out of 15 airway assessment parameters, only ULBT and CL grade showed significant results.

Conclusion We conclude that ULBT and CL grading are reliable predictors of easy intubation in patients with acromegaly undergoing surgery.

Keywords

acromegaly - airway - intubation


Publication History

Article published online:
17 July 2019

© 2020. Indian Society of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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