DefinePK

Abstract

Background: When surgery is performed, it's crucial to anesthetize the patient, which depresses the respiratory center, so you must secure the airway by artificial means for ventilation or oxygenation.  A critical component of anesthetic practice is managing difficult airways, especially in pediatric patients. The reason behind this difficulty is the anatomical and physiological differences in the airway of pediatrics compared to adults. This study identifies the frequency of difficult airway and associated factors in pediatric patients undergoing General anesthesia at Mardan Medical Complex, Pakistan.
Objective: To determine the frequency and Associated factors of difficult pediatric airway patients undergoing general Anesthesia.
Method:  Analytical cross-sectional study design was used for this study. A simple chi-square test is applied to determine the association between categorical variables The total number of participants in the study was 244, of which 95(39.8%) were female and 149 (61.1%) were male.
Result: According to this cross-sectional study, which was carried out in MMC Mardan, KPK, Pakistan.The frequency of difficult airway and difficult laryngoscopy is 1.6%. Difficult face mask ventilation is faced only in 5 individuals, which is almost 2%. By using the Intubation Difficult Scale (IDS) determined that out of 244 individuals, Easy intubation took place in 205 participants, which is 84.0%. While slightly difficult intubation takes place in 11.9% which is almost 29 individuals. While severe difficult intubation is facing 4.1%. P values <0.05 are used to determine the statistical significance of the applied test. 
The association between two categorical variables is found out through a simple chi-square test, and P values are considered for statistically significant association. which determined that there is no association between gender and level of anesthetist with pediatric difficult airway, while Age, weight, and experience of anesthetist are strongly associated with pediatric difficult airway.
Conclusion:  Low weight or underweight, less experienced anesthetists, and small age pediatric patients are more prone to difficult airway, difficult MV, and difficult intubation. Because between these variables, there is a strong association present, determined by a P value <0.05. While gender and level of anesthetist are not statistically associated with pediatric difficult airway because their P value >0.05, which indicates that there is no association present between these variables.