title: Head injury patient with bilateral vocal cord paralysis: a mistake and a lesson learnt.
abstract: Bilateral recurrent nerve palsy along with head injury is a rare clinical possibility and can be potentially fatal if not properly diagnosed. We report a case of a head injury patient with intact Glasgow Coma Scale requiring immediate re-intubation and tracheostomy after extubation failure as a result of stridor and severe dyspnoea with paradoxical respiratory pattern, possibly because of undiagnosed significant surgical history.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care, JPNA Trauma Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Gaurav Singh
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Tomar
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care, JPNA Trauma Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Niraj
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, JPNA Trauma Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Anudeep
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care, JPNA Trauma Centre, AIIMS, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Keshav
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goyal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D007442:Intubation, Intratracheal; D061226:Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000009:adverse effects; D014139:Tracheostomy; D015300:Ventilator Weaning; D014826:Vocal Cord Paralysis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*