[Iatrogenic tracheobronchial lesions during intubation. 5 cases and review of the literature]. / Plaies trachéobronchiques iatrogènes au cours de l'intubation. 5 observations et revue de la littérature.

The authors report about a personal series of 5 cases of tracheal injuries during intubation. One lesion was caused by a Carlens' tube and it was discovered and repaired during thoracotomy. Four wounds resulted from the use of ordinary tubes. Three of them affected only the tracheal membrane. The diagnosis was established with fiberendoscopy after subcutaneous emphysema occurred while the patient was awakening. Two patients underwent surgical repair, and a watch-and-wait policy was applied for another one. The outcome was favorable for these 4 patients. The last patient had a tracheoesophageal wound in a context of irradiated cervical neoplastic recurrence. The diagnosis was suggested by the discovery of major ampents of air in the small bowel during laparotomy for jejunostomy. The outcome was fatal. These cases have been compared with a compilation of the literature, gathering 8 wounds caused by ordinary tubes and 25 caused by Carlens-type tubes.