Pediatric Surgery International

, Volume 26, Issue 5, pp 553–556 | Cite as

Closure of the larynx for intractable aspiration in neurologically impaired patients

  • Yukihiro Tatekawa
  • Noriko Hosino
  • Tetsuo Hori
  • Michio Kaneko
Case Report
First Online:
Accepted:

Abstract

We present three patients with intractable aspiration pneumonia in the setting of permanent neurologic impairment, who had received a tracheostomy and showed a juxtaposition of the innominate artery against the trachea. Neurologically impaired patients often show a juxtaposition or compression of the innominate artery against the trachea by chest deformity in the setting of severe scoliosis, which could result in a trachea-innominate artery fistula. For intractable aspiration, laryngotracheal separation is safely performed and effective in controlling aspiration, but is occasionally complicated by trachea-innominate artery fistula. As an alternative procedure, we performed a closure of the larynx in these three cases, using double flaps of the vocal folds and false vocal folds, as a treatment for intractable aspiration. After operation, the patients did well without complication or clinical evidence of recurrent aspiration.

Keywords

Closure of the larynx Intractable aspiration 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Yukihiro Tatekawa
    • 1
  • Noriko Hosino
    • 1
  • Tetsuo Hori
    • 1
  • Michio Kaneko
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Pediatric Surgery, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences and University HospitalUniversity of TsukubaTsukubaJapan

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