AN UNUSUAL COMPLICATION OF EMERGENCY TRACHEAL INTUBATION

A 68-year-old woman presented with dyspnoea having undergone a short p eriod of tracheal intubation during an episode of congestive cardiac f ailure 10 days earlier. On the fourth day of admission, she suddenly d eveloped acute respiratory distress followed by a cardiac arrest and w as found to have an enlarging neck mass. Following intubation and resu scitation, computerised tomography was carried out and surgical explor ation revealed a retropharyngeal abscess and a pseudo-aneurysm of the common carotid artery resulting from pharyngeal rupture which most pro bably occurred as a complication of the original tracheal intubation.