Abstract:
Background: management of difficult airway remains one of the most relevant and challenging tasks for
anesthesiologists and pulmonary physicians. Every person who will be required to perform intubation
has to be familiar with the evaluation of difficult airway and in the event of
the unanticipated difficult airway, to be able to use a wide variety of tools and techniques to avoid
complications and fatality.
Objective: The objective of the study was to determine incidence of difficult endotracheal intubation in
patients who underwent elective general anesthesia procedure with endotracheal intubation and
associated complications with difficult intubation
Methods: Retrospective review of all elective cases who underwent general anesthesia with
endotracheal intubation was reviewed based on anesthesia medical records from January 2009 to
January 2012 G.C.
Results: The result of my study shows that 1954(55.5%) Mallampati class I, 1058(30.0%) Mallampati
class II, 316(9%) Mallampati class III and 192(5.5%) Mallampati class IV. A total of 1385(39.5%) males
and 2135(60.5%) females were reviewed. Greater numbers of patients were between the age ranges of
18 to 64 years (1561) with female predominance
Conclusion: There was no perfect predictor of difficult intubation. Incidence of difficult tracheal
intubation is higher in obstetric population due to hormonally induced soft tissue changes rather than
other anatomical factors
