CAJ | 학술논문

Congenital tracheal stenosis is an extremely rare anomaly. This paper reviews our experience in inducing anesthesia on two patients with such an anomaly.The first patient was a boy of 3 admitted with a diagnosis of abdominal tumour. He had a mild cough, wheezing and a low-grade fever preoperatively. Stridor and supra-sternal (triple) depression appeared when anesthesia was induced with open drop ether. A 14-F tube forced into the trachea failed to relieve the obstruction. Cardiac arrest happened when a larger tube was tried. Then, the 14-F tube was inserted again. After heart beat returned, the tumour was excised palliatively. After the operation, dyspnea was progressively aggravated and the patient died 3 hours later, Postmortum disclosed cricoid stenosis with an inner diameter of 3 mm. Both broncheal trees were found retaining profuse viscoussecretion.The second patient was a 9-month-old male infant. He was admitted for cleft palate and harelip. Anesthesia was induced with methoxyfluorane and ether. When intubation was attempted, even a 4 mm. (outer diameter) tube could not pass into the trachea. The operation had to be cancelled. X-ray film demonstrated stenosis below the vocal cord. 6 days later, his harelip was repaired uneventfully under ketamine anesthesia.