Esophageal and tracheolaryngeal injuries following PNI are relatively uncommon, with esophageal trauma seen in 0.9-6.6% of patients (10, 13, 37-40) and tracheolaryngeal injuries seen in 1-7%.
(946) Focal defects or discontinuity of the tracheolaryngeal wall are direct signs of injury and can be used to triage the patient's definitive therapy, thus avoiding delays with additional invasive tests (47) .
Manipulation of the airway during endotracheal (ET) intubation leads to stimulation of pharyngeal and
tracheolaryngeal nociceptors resulting in hemodynamic stress response (HDSR)1 which can be deleterious in patients with poor cardiac reserves2 or having other comorbidities.3 The magnitude of the HDSR is variable and proportional to the amount of force applied during visualization of the glottis4 and the degree of
tracheolaryngeal manipulation during advancement of ET into the trachea.5
No obvious esophageal or
tracheolaryngeal perforation or fistula was present.
(1) Pulmonary involvement from injured respiratory epithelia and
tracheolaryngeal stricture can occur and may require surgery to allow for greater ability to eat and swallow.
trachea, which penetrates the intestinal wall and migrates through the body of the animal to the
tracheolaryngeal region (8).
Most of these underlying causes were laryngeal or
tracheolaryngeal stenoses, which were caused either by a caustic substance, by a growing laryngeal neoplasm, or as a result of scarring from previous operations.
