Bilateral arytenoid cartilage paralysis after inhalation anesthesia in a horse
Abrahamsen, E.J.; Bohanon, T.C.; Bednarski, R.M.; Hubbell, J.A.; Muir, W.W.
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 197(10): 1363-1365
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-1488 PMID: 2266056 Document Number: 352946
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.