Telugu doctor behind life-saving Mallampati Score in anesthesia passes away
Dr. Seshagiri Rao Mallampati, the Telugu anesthesiologist who devised the globally recognised Mallampati Score, has died at the age of 85 in the United States.
Hyderabad: The medical community is mourning the loss of Dr. Seshagiri Rao Mallampati, the renowned Telugu anesthesiologist who developed Mallampati score, a system which is still used extensively from local nursing homes in Hyderabad to the world’s most advanced surgical centres.
Dr. Mallampati passed away on February 9, 2026, in the United States. He was 85.
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An alumnus of Andhra Medical College (AMC) KGH (King George Hospital), Visakhapatnam, Dr Mallampati emigrated to the United States in early 1970s. In 1985 he conducted a landmark study on 210 patients and introduced the concept of ‘Mallampati Score’ or ‘Mallampati Test’. To this day, it remains a mandatory safety protocol in operation theatres that has saved countless lives.
Essentially, the Mallampati score is a simple, non-invasive test, which involves asking patients to open their mouth and protrude their tongue, allowing doctors to predict the ‘difficult airway’ before the patient undergoes anaesthesia.
Paying homage to his journey, medical tributes have highlighted that back in 1975, during a routine Caesarean section, Dr. Mallampati encountered a patient who was unexpectedly difficult to intubate.
Though the mother and baby remained safe, the incident haunted him. He realised that the patient’s tongue was disproportionately large, hiding her airway despite a normal-looking neck. This curiosity led to his landmark 1985 study of 210 patients, where he introduced the Mallampati Score. Originally consisting of three classes, the score was later refined into the four-class system, which is extensively used today.
