Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background: Retropharyngeal abscess (RPA) is a serious deep neck space infection that can lead to life-threatening complications such as airway obstruction, mediastinitis, and sepsis. The Trendelenburg position, where the patient's head is lower than their feet, has been traditionally used in the management of RPA to prevent aspiration of pus in case of abscess rupture. However, the optimal positioning for patients with RPA remains a topic of debate.
Case presentation: A 51-year-old male patient presented to the emergency room with a 5-day history of progressive dysphagia and neck swelling. He was diagnosed with a ruptured retropharyngeal abscess extending to the mediastinum (descending necrotizing mediastinitis). The patient underwent surgical drainage and was subsequently admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), where he was intubated and mechanically ventilated in the Trendelenburg position. Five days later, the patient developed pneumonia, suspected to be ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).
Conclusion: The Trendelenburg position may be considered in the management of RPA to minimize the risk of aspiration. However, it is essential to weigh the potential benefits against the risks, including VAP, and to consider alternative positions such as the lateral Trendelenburg position, which may offer similar benefits with reduced risk. Further research is needed to determine the optimal positioning strategy for patients with RPA.
Keywords
Article Details
As our aim is to disseminate original research article, hence the publishing right is a necessary one. The publishing right is needed in order to reach the agreement between the author and publisher. As the journal is fully open access, the authors will sign an exclusive license agreement.
The authors have the right to:
- Share their article in the same ways permitted to third parties under the relevant user license.
- Retain copyright, patent, trademark and other intellectual property rights including research data.
- Proper attribution and credit for the published work.
For the open access article, the publisher is granted to the following right.
- The non-exclusive right to publish the article and grant right to others.
- For the published article, the publisher applied for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
