Herpetic tracheitis and brachial plexus neuropathy in a child with burns

Herpetic tracheobronchitis is a well-recognized clinical entity that most commonly occurs in immunocompromised patients, including patients with burns. Although the diagnosis of herpetic tracheobronchitis is usually not made until postmortem examination, the presence of the condition can be established when histologic specimens of a patient with upper airway obstruction are studied. In this article, a case is described in which a child developed herpetic tracheitis after undergoing elective intubation after the grafting of burns of the face, neck, and upper extremity. The tracheitis resulted in severe upper airway obstruction that required tracheal dilatation and sequential bronchoscopic excisions of granulation tissue. The patient also developed a brachial plexus neuropathy that was most likely related to herpetic infection.