Irreversible tetraplegia after tracheal resection.

The case of a 21-year-old woman without previous cervical pathology in whom irreversible tetraplegia developed after operation for tracheal stenosis is reported. After tracheal resection the neck was kept in extreme flexion and after extubation she was moved to a sitting position. The different causal agents that could produce the neurologic damage remain unclear, although we think that the combination of relative arterial hypotension secondary to the sitting position and disturbed autorregulation, caused by extreme neck flexion, could result in ischemic spinal cord injury.