Frontiers in Medicine (Jun 2015)

BMI as a Predictor for Potential Difficult Tracheal Intubation in Males

  • Alberto A Uribe,
  • David A. Zvara,
  • Erika G Puente,
  • Andrew J Otey,
  • Jianying eZhang,
  • Sergio Daniel Bergese,
  • Sergio Daniel Bergese

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2015.00038
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2

Abstract

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Introduction: Difficult tracheal intubation is a common source of mortality and morbidity insurgical and critical care settings. The incidence reported of difficult tracheal intubation is 0.1 to 13%and reaches 14% in the obese population. The objective of our retrospective study was to investigateand compare the utility of BMI as indicator of difficult tracheal intubation in males and females.Material and methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of patients who underwentabdominal surgeries with ASA I to V under general anesthesia requiring endotracheal intubation. Thefollowing information was obtained from medical records for analysis: gender, age, height, weight,BMI, length of patient stay in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU), past medical history of sleepapnea, Mallampati score, and the ASA classification assigned by the anesthesia care providerperforming the endotracheal intubation.Results: Of 4303 adult patients, 1970 (45.8%) men and 2333 (54.2%) women, were enrolled in thestudy. Within this group, a total of 1673 (38.9%) patients were morbidly obese. The average age of thestudy group was 51.4 ± 15.8 and the average BMI was 29.7 ± 8.2 kg/m². The overall incidence of theencountered difficult intubations was 5.23%, or 225 subjects. Thus, our results indicate that BMI is areliable predictor of difficult tracheal intubation predominantly in the male population; another strongpredictor, with a positive linear correlation, being the Mallampati score.Conclusions: In conclusion, our data shows that BMI is a reliable indicator of potential difficult trachealintubation only in male surgical patients.

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