LETTER
Intracranial placement of nasopharyngeal airways: is it all that rare?
Intensive Care Department, Royal London Hospital, London, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
D Y Ellis
Intensive Care Department, Royal London Hospital, London, UK; danellis@doctors.org.uk
Keywords: base of skull fracture; intracranial; nasopharyngeal airway
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In their recent review on nasopharyngeal airways (NPA), Roberts et al1 mention that the "evidence for avoiding NPAs in case of basal skull fracture is based solely on two case reports".2,3
This may be true, but how many instances of intracerebral NPA placement occur but are not published? Once a complication has occurred and been reported in a journal, further similar case reports are less likely to be submitted because it is no longer a novel complication.
We recently had another episode of accidental cerebral misplacement of an NPA in a trauma patient who later proved to have a base of skull fracture. The patient was a coach driver who was involved in a head on collision with a low building and sustained severe facial injuries. Extrication proved complicated, and the patient was trapped in the vehicle for approximately 45 min. His GCS was 3/15 when the ambulance service arrived
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