IRREVERSIBLE TETRAPLEGIA AFTER TRACHEAL RESECTION

The case of a 21-year-old woman without previous cervical pathology in whom irreversible tetraplegia developed after operation for tracheal stenosis is reported, After tracheal resection the neck was kept in ex treme flexion and after extubation she was moved to a sitting position . The different causal agents that could produce the neurologic damage remain unclear, although we think that the combination of relative ar terial hypotension secondary to the sitting position and disturbed aut orregulation, caused by extreme neck flexion, could result in ischemic spinal cord injury.