title: A surprising cause of wheezing in a morbidly obese patient: a case report.
abstract: A typical patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has small airway disease, which often responds to bronchodilators. If the patient is obese, he or she may be further compromised and not tolerate being in the supine position. We present a case of a patient with history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea with acute renal failure and urosepsis scheduled for an emergent debridement of Fournier's gangrene. In this patient, the fiberoptic intubation was performed in semi-Fowler's position, and tracheomalacia was observed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Lakshmi N
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Kurnutala
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Minal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Hattiyangadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kamath
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yarmush
keywords: COPD; difficult airway; fiberoptic intubation; tracheomalacia