title: Fatal case of retropharyngeal abscess associated with Pott's disease.
abstract: Retropharyngeal abscess is a rare, deep seated infection of the neck that usually affects young children. Chronic retropharyngeal abscess is rare and results from tuberculosis of the spine. Such swelling in the neck gradually increases in size and is detected during the routine radiological screening for symptoms like pain, dysphagia, fever, dyspnoea, progressive inspiratory stridor (from laryngeal obstruction), neck hyperextension etc, but rarely leads to sudden death due to airway obstruction. Thus the forensic pathologist rarely comes across such type of cases. Present case concerns obstruction of upper airway by a large retropharyngeal cold abscess leading to death in a 13-year-old female child from a lower socio-economic family. The possible explanation for the progression and fatal outcome of such abscesses associated with the Pott's disease is being discussed in the light of available literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, MS Ramaiah Medical College Bangalore 560054, India. basavaraj_hugar2007@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: Basappa S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Hugar
authors.forename: Y P Girish
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Chandra
authors.forename: P R Sreenivasa
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Babu
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jayanth
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vinay
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000209:etiology; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000209:etiology*; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D009336:Necrosis; D010019:Osteomyelitis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D011203:Poverty; D017703:Retropharyngeal Abscess / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D014399:Tuberculosis, Spinal / Q000150:complications*
keywords: Natural death; Pathological asphyxia; Pott's disease; Retropharyngeal abscess