Relación entre neumotaponamiento y ancho de columna de aire en pacientes pediátricos

Introduction: Cuff pressure is essential in endotracheal intubation, but excessive pressure can lead to complications, such as airway obstruction. Maintaining adequate pressure helps to prevent risks. Overall Objective: Evaluate the feasibility of a study to determine if there is a statistically significant relationship between the pressure applied to the endotracheal tube cuff and the length of the air column in the latero-lateral diameter at the thyroid window, assessed by ultrasound of the post-extubation airway in pediatric patients undergoing maxillofacial surgery under general anesthesia in Mexico. Material and Methods: Pilot, observational, prospective, prospective, correlational, cross-sectional, open-label, concordance study. Population: Patients aged 3 months to 11 years with maxillofacial surgery between June and December 2024. Pearson correlation coefficient and Kappa index were used. Results: Significant inverse correlations were found between pneumotapon pressure and the two air column width measurements: operator 1 (r1 = -0.654, pl = 0.006; r2 = -0.686, p2 = 0.003); operator 2 (r1 = -0.712, pl = 0.002; r2 = -0.739, p2 = 0.001). Agreement between measurements was significant: Kappa1 = 0.130, p1 = 0.035; Kappa2 = 0.371, p2 = 0.001. Conclusions: The higher the cuff pressure, the shorter the air column length. A subsequent study is feasible because there were no complications, there was concordance between measurements and optimal cuff pressure values were maintained.