PrediSuisse: Automatized Assessment of Difficult Airway (PrediSuisse)

PrediSuisse: Automatized Assessment of Difficult Airway Using Three Videolaryngoscopes With the Help of Facial Recognition Techniques and Neural Network

In the "PrediSuisse" research project, the investigators aim to create a reliable, reproducible, ultra-portable and radiation-free automatized software, able to identify automatically collected features, facial characteristics, and range of movements, to predict intubation difficulty. The software will generate a difficulty intubation score tailored to three commercially available videolaryngoscopes with different type of blades, corresponding to the predicted endotracheal intubation difficulty while providing the anaesthesiologist a reliable and non-subjective tool to assess individual patient's risks with regards to airway management.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Anesthesia; Airway Complication of Anesthesia; Intubation; Difficult or Failed
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: intubation

Detailed Description

The Swiss multi-institutional research project "PrediSuisse" aims to automatically predict and classify the difficulty of intubation and airway management using three commercially available videolaryngoscopes (VL) by acquiring face/profiles photos and sequences on a training set of 900 patients during the pre-anaesthesia consultation. For each patient, with the help of recently developed Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) techniques, a specially developed software will be trained to provide a predicted airway management difficulty index. This will be performed by correlating those photos/sequences and the real difficulty level of intubation, determined by three experts by reviewing the recordings of the intubations of the training set patients. The software will then be used in routine on a set of 900 other patients to validate the prediction performance.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 1800

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Patrick Schoettker, PhD; Phone Number: +41213142007; Email: patrick.schoettker@chuv.ch

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • Lausanne, Switzerland, 1011
    • Recruiting
    • University Hospital Lausanne CHUV
    • Contact: Patrick Schoettker, PhD; Phone Number: +41213142007; Email: patrick.schoettker@chuv.ch

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adult patients (≥ 18 years old) presenting at the pre-anesthesia consult for an elective general anesthesia necessitating a tracheal intubation at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Geneva and Cardiocentro Lugano

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adult patients (≥ 18 years old) presenting at the pre-anesthesia consult for an elective general anesthesia necessitating a tracheal intubation
• Signed informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients not speaking French (in Geneva and Lausanne) or Italian (in Lugano).
• Patients previously operated on the airway with anatomical modifications (ENT Flaps, tracheotomies).
• Patients unable to follow procedures or to give consent will also be excluded.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

3

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
C-mac; Intubation performed with a C-Mac videolaryngoscope	Other: intubation; Tracheal intubation using one of the three existing videolaryngoscopes
MacGrath; Intubation performed with a MacGrath videolaryngoscope	Other: intubation; Tracheal intubation using one of the three existing videolaryngoscopes
Airtraq; Intubation performed with an Airtraq videolaryngoscope	Other: intubation; Tracheal intubation using one of the three existing videolaryngoscopes

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Software creation	The primary outcome is to create a reliable, reproducible, ultra-portable and radiation-free automated software, capable of identifying automatically collected features such as facial characteristics, mouth opening, range of motion while moving the neck and thyromental distance to predict intubation difficulty. The identification of the difficult intubation score will be compared by the one goven independantly by three airway experts.	18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Team Communication	The secondary outcome is to evaluate the impact of streaming images of the intubations acquired by the videolaryngoscopy directly to the screens located in the operating room (OR) on communication between healthcare professionals in the OR with the help of a dedicated questionnaire.	18 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Patrick Schoettker, PhD, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 15, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 4, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 9, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): June 11, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 27, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 24, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Intubation; difficult airway; videolaryngoscopy
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Investigative Techniques; Therapeutics; Intubation
• Other Study ID Numbers: 04062024

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No