Intubation-caused lesions pose diagnostic problems
Obstructive lesions resulting from endotracheal intubation make it essential for physicians to quickly recognize and make specific diagnoses of described syndromes after intubation for respiratory support, a Boston surgeon says.
Hermes C. Grillo, MD, reported at the 24th Clinical Convention of the American Medical Association that this "new spectrum of lesions has been recognized to occur with increasing frequency... often after (a patient) has recovered from his respiratory failure."
Typical symptoms of the lesions are labored breathing, stridor, and occasional episodes of pneumonitis. The common characteristic of patients with these respiratory difficulties, the surgeon noted, is that they have had tracheal intubation either with an endotracheal tube or a tracheostomy, or both, within the past two years.
"Usually the period of intubation has been much more recent—a few days to several weeks previously," he said, adding that "any patient who develops these signs of
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