title: Subacute airway obstruction caused by a suprastomal tracheal granuloma following tracheotomy in an adult.
abstract: We report a case of a post-tracheotomy suprastomal granuloma in the early postoperative phase that caused subacute airway obstruction in a 28-year-old woman. The patient had undergone the tracheotomy during the surgical treatment of a submental abscess. During recovery, several capping trials had failed. Therefore, direct laryngoscopy was performed on postoperative day 11, and it revealed that the airway was being obstructed by a tracheal granuloma. The granuloma was managed with a partial resection and corticosteroids. The patient was successfully decannulated with no recurrence of the granuloma. To the best of our knowledge, airway obstruction secondary to a tracheal granuloma has not been previously reported as an early complication of a traditional surgical tracheotomy in an adult. In this report, we discuss the presenting features of this case and we propose several possible etiologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Arunkumar N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Badi
authors.forename: Joel H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Blumin
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Poetker
mesh_terms: D000038:Abscess / Q000601:surgery; D000328:Adult; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000209:etiology*; D002680:Chin; D005260:Female; D006099:Granuloma / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D014133:Tracheal Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000601:surgery; D014140:Tracheotomy / Q000009:adverse effects*