Difficult Airway due to Retropharyngeal Hematoma after Stabbing to the Neck

Reports of retropharyngeal hematoma have been scarce in the anesthesiology literature. We report a patient whose trachea was difficult to intubate due to retropharyngeal hematoma after stabbing to the neck. A woman with a knife injury to the common carotid artery required emergency carotid arterioplasty. When tracheal intubation was attempted, marked swelling of the posterior pharyngeal wall made the vocal cords impossible to visualize. Preoperative computed tomography showed a retropharyngeal hematoma. The patient required mechanical ventilation for 2 days.