Cargando…

Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma

Cricoid cartilage fracture is generally caused by significant neck trauma and causes continuous dyspnea, neck pain, or hoarseness developing immediately after the traumatic episode. A 69-year-old woman without any history of trauma was admitted to our hospital with intermittent dyspnea. Six months b...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Matsuo, Yuichiro, Yamada, Toru, Hiraoka, Eiji
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nagoya University 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6892678/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31849386
http://dx.doi.org/10.18999/nagjms.81.4.687
_version_ 1783476066304655360
author Matsuo, Yuichiro
Yamada, Toru
Hiraoka, Eiji
author_facet Matsuo, Yuichiro
Yamada, Toru
Hiraoka, Eiji
author_sort Matsuo, Yuichiro
collection PubMed
description Cricoid cartilage fracture is generally caused by significant neck trauma and causes continuous dyspnea, neck pain, or hoarseness developing immediately after the traumatic episode. A 69-year-old woman without any history of trauma was admitted to our hospital with intermittent dyspnea. Six months before admission she had started to complain of dyspnea occurring several times a month without warning, improving spontaneously within a few hours without treatment. Her primary care doctor diagnosed asthma and she was treated with inhaled short-acting beta agonists and glucocorticoids, without improvement. On initial evaluation at our hospital, the cause of dyspnea was unclear. Laryngoscopy was performed, which excluded vocal cord dysfunction. A further attack of dyspnea occurred on the fourth admission day. Stridor was evident during the attack, and bronchoscopy revealed subglottic narrowing of the trachea on both inspiration and expiration with no mass or foreign objects. Computed tomography (CT) of the neck revealed cricoid cartilage fracture causing airway narrowing and dyspnea. She was orally intubated, and tracheostomy was performed 2 weeks later to maintain her airway, which resolved her dyspnea. This patient’s presentation was unique in two aspects. First, there was no history of trauma that may cause her cricoid cartilage fracture. Second, her symptoms of dyspnea were intermittent rather than continuous. These aspects led to suspicions of other diseases such as asthma or vocal cord dysfunction, thus delaying the diagnosis. Cricoid cartilage fracture should be considered in patients with dyspnea of unknown cause, irrespective of continuous or intermittent symptoms and preceding traumatic episodes.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6892678
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher Nagoya University
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-68926782019-12-17 Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma Matsuo, Yuichiro Yamada, Toru Hiraoka, Eiji Nagoya J Med Sci Case Report Cricoid cartilage fracture is generally caused by significant neck trauma and causes continuous dyspnea, neck pain, or hoarseness developing immediately after the traumatic episode. A 69-year-old woman without any history of trauma was admitted to our hospital with intermittent dyspnea. Six months before admission she had started to complain of dyspnea occurring several times a month without warning, improving spontaneously within a few hours without treatment. Her primary care doctor diagnosed asthma and she was treated with inhaled short-acting beta agonists and glucocorticoids, without improvement. On initial evaluation at our hospital, the cause of dyspnea was unclear. Laryngoscopy was performed, which excluded vocal cord dysfunction. A further attack of dyspnea occurred on the fourth admission day. Stridor was evident during the attack, and bronchoscopy revealed subglottic narrowing of the trachea on both inspiration and expiration with no mass or foreign objects. Computed tomography (CT) of the neck revealed cricoid cartilage fracture causing airway narrowing and dyspnea. She was orally intubated, and tracheostomy was performed 2 weeks later to maintain her airway, which resolved her dyspnea. This patient’s presentation was unique in two aspects. First, there was no history of trauma that may cause her cricoid cartilage fracture. Second, her symptoms of dyspnea were intermittent rather than continuous. These aspects led to suspicions of other diseases such as asthma or vocal cord dysfunction, thus delaying the diagnosis. Cricoid cartilage fracture should be considered in patients with dyspnea of unknown cause, irrespective of continuous or intermittent symptoms and preceding traumatic episodes. Nagoya University 2019-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6892678/ /pubmed/31849386 http://dx.doi.org/10.18999/nagjms.81.4.687 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view the details of this license, please visit (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Case Report
Matsuo, Yuichiro
Yamada, Toru
Hiraoka, Eiji
Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma
title Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma
title_full Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma
title_fullStr Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma
title_full_unstemmed Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma
title_short Unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma
title_sort unique presentation of cricoid cartilage fracture causing intermittent dyspnea without preceding trauma
topic Case Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6892678/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31849386
http://dx.doi.org/10.18999/nagjms.81.4.687
work_keys_str_mv AT matsuoyuichiro uniquepresentationofcricoidcartilagefracturecausingintermittentdyspneawithoutprecedingtrauma
AT yamadatoru uniquepresentationofcricoidcartilagefracturecausingintermittentdyspneawithoutprecedingtrauma
AT hiraokaeiji uniquepresentationofcricoidcartilagefracturecausingintermittentdyspneawithoutprecedingtrauma