Prediction of emergency difficult airway by airway evaluation based on CHANNEL process / 中华急诊医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To evaluate the accuracy of CHANNEL process in predicting difficult airway of patients in emergency department.Methods:From July 2016 to December 2019, we selected patients who underwent airway management in the emergency department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. They were evaluated by CHANNEL and improved Mallampati (modified Mallampati test, MMT) classification at the same time. After completion, the glottis was exposed under direct laryngoscope, and then Cormack Lehane classification was performed. Difficult airway was defined as Cormack-Lehane grade Ⅲ or Ⅳ. The receiver-operating characteristics curve was used to evaluate the accuracy of MMT and CHANNEL in predicting difficult airway.Results:122 of 312 patients who underwent emergency airway management were included in the study. The sensitivity of CHANNEL in predicting difficult airway was 100%, the specificity was 90.1%, the area under the curve(95% confidence interval) was 0.948(0.907~0.988).Compared with MMT, the area under the curve of CHANNEL in predicting difficult airway was significantly increased( P<0.05). Conclusion:CHANNEL can accurately predict difficult airway of patients in the emergency department.