Is Mallampati Class More Consistent and Reliable among Providers When Assessed from Airway Photos?

Methodology is more important than statistics when determining reliable change.

McCrea and colleagues (2005) sought to evaluate the efficacy of a multidimensional assessment approach to the management of concussion in contact sport in their article entitled “Standard regression-based methods for measuring recovery after sport-related concussion.” They used the Standardized Regression-Based (SRB) method to determine when an athlete was recovered. Though not in the above art...

Absent Uvula: What Mallampati Class?

1. Roman SJ, Chong Sit DA, Boureau CM, Auclin FX, Ullern MM. Sub‐Tenon’s anaesthesia: An efficient and safe technique. Br J Ophthalmol 1997;81:673‐6. 2. Kumar CM, Dodds C. Sub‐Tenon’s anesthesia. Ophthalmol Clin North Am 2006;19:209‐19. 3. Kumar CM, Eid H, Dodds C. Sub‐Tenon’s anaesthesia: Complications and their prevention. Eye (Lond) 2011;25:694‐703. 4. Allman KG, Theron AD, Byles DB. A new t...

When more is not more

oosting the function of a learning protein jams the brain with too much information, according to Ype Elgersma (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands), Alcino Silva (University of California, Los Angeles, CA), and colleagues. The result is a cautionary tale for those seeking to develop learning drugs. The team created mice lacking two inhibitory phosphorylation sites on CaMKII. Wild-type CaMKII is...

Mallampati class, obesity, and a novel airway trajectory measurement to predict difficult laryngoscopy.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To determine whether Mallampati class correlates with Cormack-Lehane grade in obese adults, and investigate a novel airway trajectory measurement (ATM) to anticipate difficult laryngoscopy. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort plus a pilot study. METHODS One hundred eighty-four nonobese and 160 obese adults underwent laryngoscopy. Spearman correlations, gamma coefficients...

Mallampati 'Zero' Airway: Extremely Easy or Not?