Introduction:

One of the main concerns of the anesthesia practice is encountering a difficult airway. There are several scales for predicting this feature. Nevertheless, there have been varying findings in their predictive value throughout the current literatura.

Objective:

To determine the predictive value of the IPID scale for difficult intubation encounters.

Material and methods:

We included adult patients who underwent surgery with general anesthesia and endotracheal intubation in the Hospital Ángeles Metropolitano throughout the four months of study. The IPID scales, composed by Mallampati scale (EM), Patil-Aldrete (PA), interincisive distance (DII) and sternum-mentonian distance (DEM) were measured. These findings were used in the Pearson correlation formula versus Cormack-Lehane scale (CL).

Results:

A total of n = 151 patients were included, with the correlations: CL/IPID (r = 0.54; p = 0.0001), CL/EM (r = 0.57; p = 0.0001), CL/PA (r = 0.24; p = 0.002), CL/DII (r = 0.53; p = 0.001) y CL/DEM (r = 0.33; p = 0.00002).

Conclusion:

The IPID model has a good predictive value for difficult intubation. In an individual analysis, EM was the most sensitive test, followed by DEM and DII.