The study determined that both cuff leak volume and ultrasound-guided LACWD exhibited excellent sensitivity and specificity in predicting clinically significant upper airway blockage post-extubation, with cuff leak volume surpassing laryngeal air column width difference.

The cuff leak test and laryngeal ultrasound may be incorporated into the institutional extubation protocol in the pulmonary ICU.

This was an observational, descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted on 48 mechanically ventilated patients fulfilling weaning criteria at the ICU of Chest Department, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, from July 2022 to March 2023.

A statistically insignificant variance was observed among COPD, ILD, overlap (OSA-COPD), pneumonia, aspiration pneumonia, and PE regarding laryngeal air column width difference (LACWD), while a statistically significant variance was observed among COPD, ILD, overlap (OSA-COPD), pneumonia, aspiration pneumonia, and PE regarding CLV; there was no correlation among cuff leak volume and LACWD, and there were 40 patients (83.3%) who had no post-intubation upper air way obstruction and 8 patients (16.7%) had post-intubation upper airway obstruction: 4 of them (8.3%) had success weaning, and 4 (8.3%) had failed weaning; and at cutoff value 140 ml, cuff leak volume had sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 97.5% with significance for prediction of stridor, and at cutoff value 1.15 mm, LACWD had sensitivity of 87.5% and specificity of 67.5% with significance for prediction of stridor.

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