Copyright
©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2019; 7(22): 3838-3843
Published online Nov 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i22.3838
Published online Nov 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i22.3838
Retropharyngeal abscess presenting as acute airway obstruction in a 66-year-old woman: A case report
Jian Lin, Xiao-Mai Wu, Jia-Xi Feng, Mei-Fang Chen, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Wenzhou Medical University Affiliated Taizhou Hospital, Linhai 317000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Chen MF, Lin J, and Feng JX designed this case report; Lin J and Wu XM wrote the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: The patient provided informed written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mei-Fang Chen, MD, Associate Chief Physician, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Wenzhou Medical University Affiliated Taizhou Hospital, No. 150 Ximen Road, Linhai 317000, Zhejiang Province, China. chenmeifang1979@163.com
Telephone: +86-576-85199238
Received: August 1, 2019
Peer-review started: August 1, 2019
First decision: September 9, 2019
Revised: September 30, 2019
Accepted: October 5, 2019
Article in press: October 5, 2019
Published online: November 26, 2019
Peer-review started: August 1, 2019
First decision: September 9, 2019
Revised: September 30, 2019
Accepted: October 5, 2019
Article in press: October 5, 2019
Published online: November 26, 2019
Core Tip
Core tip: Adult retropharyngeal abscess is extremely rare as degeneration of the lymph nodes in the retropharyngeal space occurs after the age of 5 years, and most adult retropharyngeal abscesses are related to cervical spine tuberculosis. In this case report, the patient was considered to have acute non-tubercular suppurative inflammation in the retropharyngeal space. The clinical course of the patient was not straightforward, in that the initial manifestation was acute upper airway obstruction and the diagnosis of retropharyngeal abscess was only confirmed after two tracheal intubations when relevant examinations were performed.