A variant form of nasogastric tube syndrome

Nasogastric tube syndrome named by Sofferman et al in 1981 is a laryngeal complication presenting with life-threatening vocal cord abductor paralysis derived from peroforation of the NG tube-induced esophageal ulcer. As compared with the previously reported cases of this syndrome, our 4 autopsied patients were so peculiar in the following two points that vocal cord abductor paralysis developed repeatedly and no esophageal ulcer was present in spite of the presence of the laryngeal abductor muscle injury. We hypothesized that the etiology of such a variant form was circulatory injury of the laryngeal abductor muscle which was caused by the compression of the postcricoid blood vessels perfusing this muscle. Nasogastric tube syndrome, which is treatable by decannulation, cannot be ruled out even if no esophageal ulcer is detected by fiberoptic laryngoscopy.