Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Bilateral arytenoid cartilage paralysis after inhalation anesthesia in a horse.
- Journal:
- Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association
- Year:
- 1990
- Authors:
- Abrahamsen, E J et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences · United States
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
An 8-year-old Quarter Horse gelding underwent anesthesia for surgery to clean a chronic wound under his jaw. While the anesthesia itself went smoothly, the horse had low oxygen levels and developed severe breathing problems right after waking up, which required a tracheostomy (an emergency procedure to create an opening in the windpipe). A closer examination revealed that both sides of his voice box were paralyzed, but thankfully, this condition improved over the next week. The likely cause of this paralysis was pressure or injury to the nerves that control the voice box, possibly due to the horse's head and neck being held in an awkward position during the surgery and the low oxygen levels. In the end, the horse's condition gradually got better.
Abstract
An 8-year-old Quarter Horse gelding was anesthetized for surgical exploration and debridement of a chronic draining wound in the intermandibular space. Anesthesia was without complication other than persistently low PaO2. Severe airway obstruction was evident immediately after extubation, requiring tracheostomy. Endoscopic diagnosis was bilateral arytenoid paralysis, which gradually resolved over the next 7 days. Compression, trauma, or tension of the recurrent laryngeal nerves are the postulated causes of idiopathic laryngeal hemiplegia in horses. The extremely extended position of the head and neck during anesthesia, perhaps compounded by low arterial oxygen content, may have resulted in a hypoxemic insult to the recurrent laryngeal nerves and caused bilateral arytenoid paralysis in this horse.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2266056/