Assessment of Neck Circumference and Inter Incisor Gap Ratio as A Predictor of Difficult Laryngoscopy in Limited Cervical Extension Patients: An Observational Study.

Difficulty in airway management is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in anesthetic practice. The ability to identify patients at risk of difficult tracheal intubation is important especially in patients with apparently normal airways. The importance of preoperative prediction of a difficult airway is obvious, as 85% of all mistakes regarding airway management result in permanent cerebral damage and up to 30% of all anaesthetic deaths can be attributed to the management of difficult airways. In patients with limited cervical extension, the intubation will turn out to be even more difficult as we cannot make the neck extension in these scenarios, visualization of glottis will be very difficult and it will ultimately result in complications. Thorough preoperative assessment is essential to identify the patients at risk of difficult intubation so that proper management can be planned beforehand. As there is no preoperative assessment criteria or tool to predict the difficulty in these limited cervical extension patients, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of the Neck circumference to Inter incisor gap ratio in predicting the difficulty of laryngoscopy in limited cervical extension patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]