Agreement Between Video and In-person Airway Assessment Performed by Anaesthetists in Patients Scheduled for Elective Same-day Gynaecological Procedures

During a general anaesthetic, patients cannot breathe on their own and have to be artificially ventilated. This is achieved by connecting the patient's windpipe (trachea) to a ventilator via the use of a plastic tube called an endotracheal tube (ETT). To place this ETT into the patient's trachea, an instrument called a laryngoscope is used to lift the tongue and view the entrance to the trachea. This process is called laryngoscopy. The act of placing this ETT into the trachea is called intubation. In anticipation of this procedure, the airway is assessed by the anaesthetist before the patient is put to sleep. This airway examination helps predict if the patient's airway will prove to be difficult to intubate. This assessment is usually carried out face to face with the patient. Since the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic, we have been trying to minimise patient footfall performing anaesthetic assessments before surgery through a video platform. The objective of this study is to compare these video airway evaluations to assessments carried out face to face. We anticipate that the virtual airway assessments will be similar if not the same as the in-person airway assessments.