Riaz Ahmed Khan, Tahir Hussain.
Value of Predictive Tests in evaluating the difficult airway.
Pak Armed Forces Med J Jan ;52(1):9-11.

One of the primary responsibilities of anaesthesiologists is to ensure the required degree of airway maintenance and protection during general anaesthesia. Failure to maintain a clear airway or to ventilate a patient after the administration of respiratory depressants and muscle relaxing drugs is a dilemma for anaesthetist and a life threatening situation for the patient. All patients undergoing general anaesthesia should have a basic evaluation of the airway consisting of history, general physical examination and a few specific tests. Generally speaking evaluation has been assessed to pick up 15-50% of patients pre-operatively who actually are clinically difficult intubations while a number of normal patients are labelled as being difficult. To assess the predictive value of various clinical tests in evaluating the difficult airway a study was conducted at combined Military Hospital Kohat from January 98 - August 99. The results showed that positive predictive value of combination of tests was much higher than individual tests alone.

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