Use of the Pentax-AWS in 293 patients with difficult airways.

Background: Several case reports have shown that the Pentax-AWS (Hoya Corporation, Tokyo, Japan), a new video laryngoscope, is useful in patients with difficult airways.

Methods: We assessed the effectiveness of the Pentax-AWS in two groups. Group 1 included 270 patients in whom direct laryngoscopy using a Macintosh laryngoscope had been difficult.

Correlation of cleft type with incidence of perioperative respiratory complications in infants with cleft lip and palate.

Background: A retrospective survey of 339 infants who had undergone primary plastic surgery for cleft lip and palate was performed to evaluate the concomitant preoperative assessment based on severity grading of the common cold and the correlation of cleft type with the incidence of perioperative respiratory complications.

Methods: We assessed the severity of common cold symptoms in the preoperative period using the Common Cold Score, which comprises 10 symptoms and findings. We then determined the association of the incidence of perioperative respiratory complications with the increasing severity of common cold symptoms and also compared the complication incidence in the three cleft types in healthy infants without a common cold.