Pilot Study to Determine the Utility of Point‐of‐care Ultrasound in the Assessment of Difficult Laryngoscopy

Abstract

This pilot study demonstrated that sonographic measurements of anterior neck soft tissue thickness at the level of hyoid bone and thyrohyoid membrane can be used to distinguish difficult and easy laryngoscopies. Clinical screening tests did not correlate with US measurements, and US was able to detect difficult laryngoscopy, indicating the limitations of the conventional screening tests for predicting difficult laryngoscopy.