Obstruction of the neonatal airway from teratomas
Zerella, J.T.; Finberg, F.J.
Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics 170(2): 126-131
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0039-6087 PMID: 2405522 Document Number: 366683
Most neonates with cervical or oral-pharyngeal teratomas have airway obstruction and an obvious mass. In previous reports, obstruction of the airway had caused 49 deaths in 164 newborns with cervical teratomas and five deaths in 24 newborns with oral-pharyngeal teratonas. Most were reported before the era of prenatal ultrasound. Cervical and oral-pharyngeal teratomas can now be diagnosed prenatally to allow preparation for the neonatal airway obstruction that so often occurs. Three infants with cervical teratomas, one infant with an oral-pharyngeal teratoma and one with a combined cervical and oral-pharyngeal teratoma were born in Phoenix over a one year period of time, and all had airway obstruction. These five patients demonstrated the value of prenatal planning and prompt postnatal surgical care by an ultrasonographer, a perinatologist, a neonatologist, maternal and pediatric anesthesiologists and a pediatric surgeon.