Vocal cord paralysis associated with difficult gastric tube insertion

Abstract

Many clinical reports have described vocal cord paralysis after general anaesthesia. In most cases, paralysis was attributed to tracheal tube insertion. In this report we describe one patient in whom gastric tube insertion was strongly suspected as the cause of paralysis. The patient was a 47-yr-old man who underwent left hepatic lobectomy. Just after the operation he complained of hoarseness and a diagnosis of complete right vocal cord paralysis was made, from which he recovered after eight weeks. In this patient, insertion of the gastric tube seemed to have injured the anterior ramus of the right recurrent laryngeal nerve directly. Although there have been several reports of vocal cord paralysis induced by gastric tubes, none has noted such an acute onset and direct nerve injury. Therefore we would like to report this rare case and elucidate the mechanism of vocal cord paralysis. Careful attention should be paid in inserting a gastric tube to patients under general anaesthesia and, sometimes, the use of the soft tube may be indicated. © 1994 Canadian Anaesthesiologists.