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Case Reports
. 2011 Mar;84(1):9-13.

Pretracheal abscess following two weeks of endotracheal intubation

Narayan Neupane  1 , M Frances Schmidt, Neerja Gulati, Muhammad Perwaiz, Fadi Hammoudeh, Eneh Kennedy, Mehjabin Zahir, Danilo Enriquez, Joseph Quist
Affiliations
Case Reports

Pretracheal abscess following two weeks of endotracheal intubation

Narayan Neupane et al. Yale J Biol Med. 2011 Mar.

Abstract

Pretracheal abscess due to endotracheal intubation has not been reported in literature. We present a case of a female patient who was admitted with acute hypercapnic respiratory failure. Patient was initially managed with noninvasive ventilation but eventually was intubated after sustaining a cardiac arrest. She could not be extubated because of poor weaning parameters, so a tracheostomy was planned. During surgery, a pretracheal abscess was found with destruction of the second, third, and fourth tracheal rings and intact posterior tracheal wall. The possible risk factors, mechanism of injury, and preventive strategy of tracheal complication of intubation are discussed.

Keywords: endotracheal intubation; pretracheal abscess.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Neck CT scan at three different levels showing the endotracheal tube in the trachea and normal pretracheal and paratracheal space.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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