Assessment of predictive value of thyromental height in predicting difficult laryngoscopy compared with Mallampati, and thyromental distance among surgical patient who will take general anesthesia at selected governmental hospital cross-sectional study: Ethiopia, 2022.

BACKGROUND

Anesthesiologists must always perform a preoperative airway examination to identify individuals who will have challenging laryngoscopy. In an effort to identify the most accurate airway predictor, numerous authors have evaluated a number of predictive assays. Thyromental height test (TMHT), a new airway predictor, has recently been demonstrated to have good predictive value in determining difficult airways. This study's main objective was to assess the diagnostic effectiveness of the TMHT and compare it to other known airway predictors, such as the modified Mallampati test (MMT) and the thyromental distance (TMD).

OBJECTIVE

To assess the predictive value of TMHT in predicting difficult laryngoscopy compared to modified MMT and TMD among patients who will take general anesthesia.

METHOD

In this prospective, observational study, which took place from March 2021 to May 2021, 247 people of either sex who were older than 18 but not more than 65 and scheduled for elective surgery under general anesthesia participated. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to identify the proper cut-off values for TMHT, and the Fisher exact test was used to calculate the correlation.

RESULT

Incidence of Difficult laryngoscopy was 13.4%. For TMHT the cut-off values were 4.9 cm and it had a sensitivity of 78.8%, a specificity of 89.7%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 54.2%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 96.5%, respectively. When compared to other parameters, like TMD, and MMT. TMHT had the highest sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV. (<0.000).

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Of all the airway assessments, the TMHT had the highest accuracy and odds ratio for predicting difficult laryngoscopy with the highest odds ratio and accuracy. TMHT has to be validated in broader patient groups because it appears to be a possible single anatomical marker for predicting the likelihood of a difficult laryngoscopy. It needs more research because it isn't assessed in pediatrics and pregnant women.