0
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Increase in Mallampati score during pregnancy.

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          A photographic version of the Mallampati test was developed and applied to 242 pregnant patients at 12 weeks' gestation and again at 38 weeks' gestation. At 38 weeks the number of grade 4 cases had increased by 34% (P < 0.001). This is in agreement with other evidence which suggests that difficult laryngoscopy is slightly more frequent in obstetrics (1.7%) than in general surgery (1.3%). The increase in Mallampati score correlated with gain in body weight (r = 0.3, P < 0.001), which gives some support to the concept that fluid retention is the underlying cause. We conclude that pharyngeal oedema causes some hindrance to tracheal intubation in obstetrics, but not enough to explain the high failure rate reported. A case is made for rationalizing the management of difficult intubation. Our data also show that more research is needed on factors which affect Mallampati's test, particularly neck extension.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          Br J Anaesth
          British journal of anaesthesia
          0007-0912
          0007-0912
          Jun 1995
          : 74
          : 6
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Division of Anaesthesia, Northwick Park Hospital and Clinical Research Centre, Harrow.
          Article
          10.1093/bja/74.6.638
          7640115
          d3ae137c-f3f0-41af-9d27-3208d0a1465e
          History

          Comments

          Comment on this article