A 10 year-old Iban girl presented with severe odynophagia for 4 days and subcutaneous emphysema. Clinically, her neck was tender with crepitus. Lateral neck radiograph showed multiple linear radiolucent shadows at retropharyngeal space. Flexible nasopharyngolaryngoscope revealed a tunnel behind upper oesophagus with slough and there was pooling of saliva at pyriform sinus. Feeding via nasogastric tube was started and empirical treatment for fungal and bacterial infection was commenced. Subsequent computed tomography of neck and thorax showed a 15-long blind tract at subglottic region posterior to oesophagus (prevertebral region), extending to superior mediastinum just before carina at T3/T4 level, represent abscess. Hourly suctioning of the remaining abscess in the blind tract with 10ml-syringe was done.
Retropharyngeal abscess (RPA) is relatively rare today. A study of 17 cases of RPA treated at our hospital in the past 10 years showed a shift in the disease from children below 6 years of age (41%) to older children and adults (58%). Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) was found to be the commonest (52%) aetiological predisposing factor in all age groups. Other aetiological factors were septicaemia (11%) in children below the age of 6 years and trauma due to foreign body (35%) in the older children and adult age groups. Klebsiella, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus were the commonest species of microorganisms grown from pus. The changing clinical trends, microbiology, choice of antibiotics, usefulness of radiology, and complications of this potentially fatal illness are discussed.