Pre‐operative three‐dimensional face scans for predicting difficult facemask ventilation: a prospective development study
Viktor A. Wünsch, Hannes Bommes, Sofia Germer, Milan Piltan, Philipp Breitfeld, Sarah Latus, Linda Krause, Christian Zöllner, Christopher Gundler, Martin Petzoldt · 2026
Read Pre‐operative three‐dimensional face scans for predicting difficult facemask ventilation: a prospective development study by Viktor A. Wünsch, Hannes Bommes, Sofia Germer, Milan Piltan, Philipp Breitfeld, Sarah Latus, Linda Krause, Christian Zöllner, Christopher Gundler, Martin Petzoldt (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13551139.txt.
Description
Viktor A. Wünsch and nine colleagues test whether pre-operative three-dimensional face scans can flag difficult facemask ventilation. Facemask ventilation is a key airway skill, but predicting trouble ahead of time is hard. Their 2026 study scans patients before ear, nose, and throat or maxillofacial surgery and fits each scan to a standard facial model. It asks which face-shape features predict trouble.
Data from 398 patients were analyzed. The DIFFMASK score alone reached an AUROC of 0.73, while selected facial shape features alone reached 0.74 on the same scale. Adding three facial shape features to DIFFMASK improved model fit and raised the AUROC to 0.76 in optimism-corrected terms. Nose, lower jaw, neck region, and facial convexity proved most predictive. Face scans thus matched DIFFMASK and enriched it.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Viktor A. Wünsch, Hannes Bommes, Sofia Germer, Milan Piltan, Philipp Breitfeld, Sarah Latus, Linda Krause, Christian Zöllner, Christopher Gundler, Martin Petzoldt |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 24 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |