The patient had
presented with an unusual complaint – throat pain which radiated to neck base.
A young age male in his early 20s who noted with sudden onset of discomfort. The
initial review had shown enlarge tonsil with some pus.
I had given him some
pain killer and a parenteral dose of Augmentin. He had become better and
discharged with oral medication.
He had returned to
ED 5 hrs later in the morning c/o SOB and unable to swallow. I had a very bad
feeling about it and started him on epinephrine inhalation. I had proceeded
with a neck CT which revealed swelling over the epiglottis region.
A very unusual
case as acute epiglottis is very rare in adult…. I am aware of the difficulty of intubating such patient and does not want to risk it even if it is an elective one. Since it is early in the
morning, I had decided to hand him over to an expert for intubation.
I had called up
our anesthesiologist CZ and he had gladly complied with my referral. He had
come and seen my patient within minutes.
I thought he was
going to take the patient up elsewhere for the intubation. However he said he
would bring down his tools and do it in the ED.
He ordered large
doses of diprivan (a full ampule ) with an ampule of succinylcholine. ( I would
only use 1/4 of those most of the time). Before he started with the routine, I
joked to him,” don’t treat here as yours house”…indeed, the equipment in the ED
might not be as complete as it was in the OT.
After the
fibrillation of muscle, he had started the insertion which ended into the
oesophagus. The O2 sat had fallen to 50% then. Prior to the second attempt, the
O2 sat had fallen to 30% and CZ had told me to relax as the patient is young….
The second attempt
was successful and the SpO2 risen to a comfortable level within seconds and it
was a real relief for me when I confirmed the position of the tube.
For me, anything
which go wrong would be my responsibility as I was the patient’s attending
physician.
CZ had told me
that the epiglottis was actually ok but there was this large swelling at the
tongue base which actually acted as the culprit. Well, a review of the history
which was compatible to the diagnosis -> no barking cough but difficulty of
speaking ( tongue base problem c normal epiglottis vs swollen epiglottis).
What ever is the
diagnosis, I am happy with the outcome as the patient had improved after
admission to the ICU….