Association between Obesity and Difficult Intubation

Abduljalil Wafa; Ahmed Aburwais

doi:10.51984/71zdwe64

Authors

Abduljalil Wafa Department of Anaesthesia, Tripoli Central Hospital, Tripoli, Libya
Ahmed Aburwais Department of Anaesthesia, Tripoli Central Hospital, Tripoli, Libya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51984/71zdwe64

Keywords:

Body mass index (BMI), Obesity, Morbid obesity, Tracheal intubation

Abstract

Background: More than 15% of general population meets criteria of obesity. The aim of this study was to compare non-obese, obese, and morbidly obese patients regarding their intubational conditions.

Patients and methods: This prospective study was performed on 45patients ASA I and II scheduled for surgery under general anaesthesia that needed tracheal intubation. The patients were considered as non-obese (Group 1, n = 15) with body mass index (BMI) < 28, obese (Group 2, n = 15) with BMI >28 and < 35, and morbidly obese with BMI > 35.All patients were induced in to general anaesthesia using the same standard protocol (thiopentone 5mg / kg, fentanyl 1.5mcg/kg, and suxamethonium 1mg /kg ) then the intubation was performed by the same operator. Intubational conditions were scored according to the following criteria : vocal cord visualization , application of external pressure , supportive techniques used , time of intubation , number of attempts ,and were assessed as excellent (score 5-7), good (score 7-10), and poor (score 10-13). Chi-square testing was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Statistically significant differences were found in the intubational conditions among non-obese, obese and morbidly obese groups of patients with increasing number of poor conditions for intubation and decreasing number of excellent conditions respectively.

Conclusion: Intubational conditions were demonstrated to be worse in obese patients in comparison with none obese with tendency to deteriorate in accordance to degree of obesity.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Van Itallie T.B. Health implication of overweight and obesity in the united state. Ann Intern Med, 1985: 103:983.

Fisher A, Waterhouse TD, Adams AP. Obesity: its relation to anaesthesia. Anaesthesia, 1995: 30:633.

Benden A. Obesity and airway management. Acta Anaesth. Scand, 1996: 42:103.

Bertellsen F, Bugge K. Recovery from general anaesthesia in obese patients. Acta Anaesth scand, 1995: 36:92.

Lee JJ, Larson MN. Airway management in the morbidly obese. Anaesthesia Rev, 1996: 7:33.

Moyer GA. Preoxygenation in the morbidly obese patients. Anaesth Analg, 1995: 65:106.

Morgan PJ. Anaesthetic management of high risk obese patients. Acta Anaesth scand, 1997: 111:163.

T. Ezri, G. Gewurtz, D. ISessler, B. Medalion, P. Szmuk, C. Hagberg and S, susmallian. Published in final edition from as: Anaesthesia. 2003 November, 58(11): 1111-1114.