[Correlation between Predictive Index of Difficult Intubation and Cormack].

Background: More than 600 people die each year in developed countries from complications at the time of orotracheal intubation. Studies have shown that all predictors used so far have low ability to predict difficult airway. When analyzing this ability, both clinical suspicion, indirect laryngoscopy and even the different individual examinations showed predictive values higher than 80%.

Objective: To evaluate the concordance between the Predictive Index of Difficult Intubation (PIDI) and the Cormack regarding the diagnosis of difficult intubation in patients undergoing open and laparoscopic cholecystectomy under balanced general anesthesia.

Material and methods: Observational, prospective, cross-sectional, analytical concordance study, carried out in patients aged 18 to 60 who underwent open and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The sample was probabilistic, the statistical analysis applied univariate and bivariate, specifically the Kappa index.

Results: A total of 96 patients were analyzed; 77 were female with a mean age of 40.4 years. Said sample presented a PIDI of easy intubation in 75%, discreet difficulty in 21.9% and frank difficulty in 3.1%. After conventional direct laryngoscopy, 75% presented Cormack I, 16.7% presented Cormack II, 8.3% presented Cormack III. The bivariate analysis with the Kappa index statistic showed a value of 0.242.

Conclusions: It is accepted the alternative hypothesis demonstrating that there is a correlation between the PIDI and the Cormack concerning the diagnosis of difficult intubation in patients undergoing open and laparoscopic cholecystectomy under balanced general anesthesia.