An unusual complication of emergency tracheal intubation

Abstract

A 68-year-old woman presented with dyspnoea having undergone a short period of tracheal intubation during an episode of congestive cardiac failure 10 days earlier. On the fourth day of admission, she suddenly developed acute respiratory distress followed by a cardiac arrest and was found to have an enlarging neck mass. Following intubation and resuscitation, computerised tomography was carried out and surgical exploration revealed a retropharyngeal abscess and a pseudo-aneurysm of the common carotid artery resulting from pharyngeal rupture which most probably occurred as a complication of the original tracheal intubation.