Comparative Effectiveness of Intubating Devices in the Morbidly Obese

A Prospective Study Comparing Video Laryngoscopy Devices to Direct Laryngoscopy for Tracheal Intubation of Patients Undergoing Bariatric Surgery

This prospective, randomized study will compare the effectiveness of 4 different airway intubating devices which are most commonly used.

The four different devices are as follows: McGrath video laryngoscope, GlideScope video laryngoscope, Video-Mac video laryngoscope, and Macintosh size 4 direct laryngoscope.

Hypothesis: the use of a video laryngoscope will improve the glottic view compared to direct laryngoscopy, and secondarily, use of the video laryngoscope will reduce the time required to achieve successful tracheal intubation in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. (Weight loss surgery). The three types of video laryngoscopy devices include; the Verethon GlideScope, LMA McGrath and Karl-Storz Video-Mac.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with a documented body mass index (BMI) of >35.
• Patients scheduled to undergo inpatient surgery procedures under general anesthesia.
• Willingness and ability to sign an informed consent document
• 18 - 80 years of age
• American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Class II- III adults of either sex.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who are deemed to be such a significant of an airway risk that they necessitate awake fiberoptic intubation
• Patients with a history facial abnormalities, oral-pharyngeal cancer or reconstructive surgery
• Emergency surgeries
• Pregnancy
• The inability to tolerate 0.2mg of glycopyrrolate based on tachycardia.
• Any other conditions or use of any medication which may interfere with the conduct of the study.