Difficulties in Intubation For Cervical Surgery: Airway Assessment with Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Cervical spine surgery may involve difficulties in intubation if the cervical spine is arthrotic or if the spinal cord is compressed by tumors or traumatic lesions (1). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides multidimensional imaging and is now widely performed before spinal surgery (2). For the cervical region, T1-weighted images in the sagittal plane offer anatomic visualization of airways, including soft tissues, from mouth to trachea (Fig.1). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of MRI to predict difficult intubations.