Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to identify the pre-anesthetic determinants of difficult tracheal intubation in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac catheterization procedures. The secondary objective is to identify factors that would contribute to difficult tracheal intubation in this subset of patients. Methods: After obtaining the institutional review board approval [MESRC#11/2014] as well as an informed consent from the parents, 199 children [newborns to 5 years of age] undergoing elective cardiac catheterization at the National Heart Center, Royal Hospital, Muscat, were prospectively included in this observational study. Children with Down syndrome and those with dysmorphic features were excluded. Pre-anesthetic airway assessment was done using modified Mallampati grading, lower lip to chin distance (LCD), tragus to mouth angle (TMA), thyromental distance (TMD), neck circumference (NC) and the ratio of height to thyromental distance (RHTMD). Demographic data (i.e. age, height, weight, sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists [ASA] physical status and body mass index (BMI)) were recorded for each child. Cormack and Lehane grade III and IV laryngoscope views under general anesthesia were considered to represent difficult airway access. The data collected was analyzed using MedCalc software version 17.8. The descriptive analysis of the categorized variables is presented as proportions, and continuous variables are presented as mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test was used to study association between pre-anesthetic airway assessment tools and Grade III and Grave IV laryngoscope views. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted and the best cut-off values for each of the airway evaluation method that would predict Cormack and Lehane grade III and IV laryngoscope views were computed. The sensitivity and the specificity were also computed along with positive and negative

Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to identify the pre-anesthetic determinants of difficult tracheal intubation in pediatric patients undergoing cardiac catheterization procedures. The secondary objective is to identify factors that would contribute to difficult tracheal intubat...