external airway injury resulting in insidious life-threatening complications

Abstract

Acute external laryngotracheal injuries constitute one of the most urgent conditions of the field of otolaryngology. In such cases, immediate decision-making and intervention are imperative to pre- vent possible detrimental consequences. The situation is even more serious if the wounded is of the pediatric age group. In this report, we present a 7-year old boy with a blunt trauma to the anterior neck, which resulted in fractures of the thyroid and cricoid carti- lages and dissection of the trachea with insidious onset of retropha- ryngeal air trapping and pneumomediastium. After securing the air- way by emergent tracheotomy, appropriate reconstruction of the injured larynx was performed under elective conditions. Unexpected serious complications like acute retropharyngeal emphysema and pneumomediastinum in a patient of pediatric age group makes our case extraordinary.