A patient sitting upright with the head neutral is asked to open the mouth maximally and protrude the tongue without phonating. The soft palate, fauces, uvula and both anterior and posterior pillars are all visible. Which Mallampati class does this correspond to?

• A Class IV
• B Class II
• C Class III
• D Class I ✓

Explanation

Mallampati Class I shows the entire palate including soft palate, fauces, uvula and pillars. Class II shows soft palate, fauces and uvula but the pillars are hidden by the tongue base, which kills the common distractor B. Class III shows only the soft palate and uvula base, and Class IV shows hard palate alone. Higher classes correlate with increasing probability of difficult laryngoscopy.

Reference: Morgan and Mikhail's Clinical Anesthesiology, 7th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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