The importance of increased neck circumference to intubation difficulties in obese patients.

Background: Using the intubation difficulty scale (IDS), we sought to confirm that obese patients are more difficult to intubate than lean patients. We assessed classical bedside tests and included neck circumference.

Methods: We prospectively compared the incidence of difficult tracheal intubation in 70 obese [body mass index (BMI) > or = 30 kg/m(2)] and 61 lean patients (BMI < 30 kg/m(2)).