Endotracheal intubation has been used widely for the maintenance of airway in the emergency patient and CPR in the acute airway obstruction patient and to treat respiratory insufficiency. Endotracheal intubation has many advantages but it may cause se...
Endotracheal intubation has been used widely for the maintenance of airway in the emergency patient and CPR in the acute airway obstruction patient and to treat respiratory insufficiency. Endotracheal intubation has many advantages but it may cause several complications which rate about 4% of endotracheal intubation patient. Among these complications, laryngeal granuloma is a relatively rare complication arising about 1 case per 10,000∼20,000 cases. Authors report a case of laryngeal granuloma which developed after endotracheal intubation required during emergency treatment.
Case: A 55-year old female patient visited Chosun University Hospital Emergency Room complaining of dyspnea, cyanosis and sweating on Feb. 8th 1995. According to past history, she had a little obesity, dyspnea on exercise and mild hypertension.
At arrival, blood pressure was 240/110mmHg, pulse rate 150 rates/min, respiratory rate 12/min, body temperature 36.5℃ and cyanosis with sweating on whole body was observed. And the mental state was semicoma.
At 5 minutes after arrival, sudden respiratory arrest developed and immediate endotracheal intubation which emergency treatment was performed it was difficult to intubate endotracheally due to short neck and obesity.
At 1 hour after arrival, general condition of the patient recovered well and extubation was done.
The patient was transferred to internal medicine department and discharged after 12 days of medical treatment.
At 2 months after discharge, the patient felt a progressive hoarseness and foreign body sensation of larynx. She was diagnosed as laryngeal granuloma at ENT department of Chosun University. She underwent the surgical operation and discharged in good health after 7 days of admission.