BILATERAL VOCAL CORD PARALYSIS FOLLOWING BLUNT TRAUMA TO THE NECK

Blunt trauma to the anterior neck has been known to cause upper-airway obstruction requiring emergency tracheostomy. We report the case of a 26-year-old man who sustained blunt trauma to the anterior neck in wh om upper-airway obstruction developed. Although computed tomography of the neck revealed a thyroid cartilage fracture and a retropharyngeal hematoma, fiberoptic examination of the larynx identified vocal cord p aralysis as the primary cause of his upper-airway obstruction. Emergen cy tracheostomy was performed, and the patient recovered uneventfully. A Medline search of the literature for the past 3 years failed to ide ntify any individual case reports of bilateral vocal cord paralysis se condary to blunt anterior neck trauma.