title: Six cases of children with a benign cervical tumor who required tracheostomy.
abstract: Cervical tumors sometimes cause airway obstruction. We have treated six children with benign cervical tumors who required tracheostomy. Two cervical and one glossal lymphangiomata treated with local injection of OK432 after creating a tracheostomy were successfully decannulated after the treatment. One patient with a giant cervical lymphangioma needed an EXIT (ex utero intrapartum treatment) procedure. He underwent tracheostomy at 10 months of age after long-term endotracheal intubation, but he died of sepsis and hypoxic brain damage at 18 months. One patient with a subglottic hemangioma treated with steroids finally achieved closure of the tracheostomy at 2 years of age. A 7-year-old girl with a tracheal schwannoma underwent tracheostomy performed a week after admission, but she already had hypoxic brain damage resulting from problems with intubation. Most patients with a lymphangioma or hemangioma in the cervical region have required early tracheostomy before commencing treatment with OK-432 or steroids. If there is any sign of possible airway compromise, then it is vital to perform an early tracheostomy, even for benign tumors.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Surgery, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, 2-16-1 Sugao Miyamae-ku, 216-8511, Kawasaki, Japan. h2kita@marianna-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kitagawa
authors.forename: Hirokazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawase
authors.forename: Munechika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wakisaka
authors.forename: Yuriko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Satou
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Satou
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Furuta
authors.forename: Koonosuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakada
mesh_terms: D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D005931:Glottis / Q000473:pathology; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D006391:Hemangioma / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D008202:Lymphangioma / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D009442:Neurilemmoma / Q000150:complications; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D014134:Tracheal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D014139:Tracheostomy