Abstract
BackgroundAirway management, including noninvasive endotracheal intubation or invasive tracheostomy, is an essential treatment strategy for patients with deep neck space abscess (DNSA) to reverse acute hypoxia, which aids in avoiding acute cerebral hypoxia and cardiac arrest. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel risk score to predict the need for airway management in patients with DNSA.MethodsPatients with DNSA admitted to 9 hospitals in Guangdong Province between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2020, were included. The cohort was divided into the training and validation cohorts. The risk score was developed using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and logistic regression models in the training cohort. The external validity and diagnostic ability were assessed in the validation cohort.ResultsA total of 440 DNSA patients were included, of which 363 (60 required airway management) entered into the training cohort and 77 (13 required airway management) entered into the validation cohort. The risk score included 7 independent predictors (p < 0.05): multispace involvement (odd ratio [OR] 6.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.79–23.07, p < 0.001), gas formation (OR 4.95, 95% CI 2.04–12.00, p < 0.001), dyspnea (OR 10.35, 95% CI 3.47–30.89, p < 0.001), primary region of infection, neutrophil percentage (OR 1.10, 95% CI 1.02–1.18, p = 0.015), platelet count to lymphocyte count ratio (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00–1.01, p = 0.010), and albumin level (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.80–0.92, p < 0.001). Internal validation showed good discrimination, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.951 (95% CI 0.924–0.971), and good calibration (Hosmer–Lemeshow [HL] test, p = 0.821). Application of the clinical risk score in the validation cohort also revealed good discrimination (AUC 0.947, 95% CI 0.871–0.985) and calibration (HL test, p = 0.618). Decision curve analyses in both cohorts demonstrated that patients could benefit from this risk score. The score has been transformed into an online calculator that is freely available to the public.ConclusionsThe risk score may help predict a patient’s risk of requiring airway management, thus advancing patient safety and supporting appropriate treatment.
Highlights
Deep neck space abscess (DNSA) is a rare infectious disease with an incidence of 0.09–0.15‰, but it is still a globally recognized critical public health disease [1]
Airway management is an essential part of the treatment strategy for deep neck space abscess (DNSA) to reverse acute hypoxia, which aids in avoiding acute cerebral hypoxia and cardiac arrest [2]
Enhanced Computed tomography (CT) confirmed that 168 patients (46.3%) had multispace involvement, and 99 patients (27.3%) had gas formation
Summary
Deep neck space abscess (DNSA) is a rare infectious disease with an incidence of 0.09–0.15‰, but it is still a globally recognized critical public health disease [1]. Airway management is an essential part of the treatment strategy for DNSA to reverse acute hypoxia, which aids in avoiding acute cerebral hypoxia and cardiac arrest [2]. The early detection of patients who are likely in need of airway management is critical. The proportion of patients with DNSA who need airway management is 16.8–38.2%, while the proportion of patients with dyspnea at the time of presentation at the hospital is only 5.6–12.8% [3,4,5]. Airway management, including noninvasive endotracheal intubation or invasive tracheostomy, is an essential treatment strategy for patients with deep neck space abscess (DNSA) to reverse acute hypoxia, which aids in avoiding acute cerebral hypoxia and cardiac arrest.
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