[Emergencies in ORL: management by the anesthesiologist]

The otorhinolaryngologic (O.R.L.) diseases seen in the emergency room are frequent and diverse. Most of them need the otorhinolaryngologist and anaesthetist to be present in order to realise fast, adequate and, above all, well coordinated gestures. The foreign bodies, the hemorrhagies, the traumas, the infectious diseases and finally the respiratory distress can be classified by frequency order. The laryngo tracheal dyspneas (DL) are first considered because they are the most dramatic emergencies: infectious DL in children, DL secondary to tracheal intubation or tracheotomy, DL caused by a tumor, traumatic DL secondary to a knock, a blast, a burn or a thyroidectomy, edematous DL and "DL after tracheotomy". The infectious O.R.L. emergencies are observed in the serious pharyngeal diseases, in the cervical cellulitis and during the complications of sinusitis or mastoiditis. The foreign bodies (CE) are the most frequent cause of O.R.L emergencies. The complications depends of the location of the foreign: almost nonexistent if the CE is located in the nasal fossa or in the meatus acusticus externus, inconstant if CE is oropharyngeal or oesophageal. The complications may be fatal if CE is pharyngotracheal and are relevant to the exact location of CE which result in emergency behavior. The considered oesophageous lesions not due to CE are chemical burns and perforations; in emergency, hemorrhagic O.R.L. lesions only epistaxias are concerned; O.R.L. hemorrhage need to be studied with their specific causes.