الفهرس 
Anatomy of the upper airwayOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Difficult tracheal intubation (DTI) is a major concern for anesthesiologists it contributes to perioperative morbidity and mortality.Incidence is 1.5%-13% in patients undergoing surgery in clinical practice.Despite the availability of multiple clinical airway assessment methods, unexpected DTIs may occur in 1–8%. The search continues for a simple and non-invasive technique that may provide a more accurate assessment of the patient’s airway.Neck circumference to thyromental distance (NC/TMD) ratio has been used to detect DTI in obese patients as they have a large amount of neck soft tissue causing displacement of the larynx. NC/TMD ratio may be superior to Modified Mallampati classification in predicting difficult airway as it has a higher sensitivity and specificity value.While NC does not specify the amount of soft tissue at various topographic regions within the neck. Distribution of fat in specific neck areas especially the anterior neck may provide a good detector of DTI than NC so DTI can be predicted in morbidly obese patients by the amount of neck soft tissue especially at the level of the vocal cord (VC) as measured by US.In our study we tried to evaluate the utility of the US measurement of anterior neck soft tissue thickness at the level of the vocal cords compared to NC/TMD Ratio as a prognostic predictor of DTI in morbidly obese patients