Association between Obesity and Difficult Intubation

الملخص

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.