[Penetrating laryngotracheal injury during a suicide attempt]

The authors present a case of a 40-year-old man who intentionally stabbed himself several times in the trachea and larynx during a suicide attempt, and also inflicted other penetrating injuries of the stomach and liver upon himself. The preoperative examination using fiber-optic tracheoscopy and CT revealed only transection of the ligamentum cricothyroideum; the remaining two defects were discovered later, during the surgical revision. All three injuries were successfully treated with sutures, in one case using the transtracheal approach.