[Post intubation collected septic cricoarytenoid arthritis: case report]

We report a rare case of post intubation cricoarytenoid arthritis. A 18-year-old man admitted to emergency was easely intubated for 14 days for a non neck injury. Sixty-six days after intubation, he consulted for severe odynophagia with dyspnoea. Nasofibroscopic examination revealed a right arytenoid granuloma with oedema and inflammation, and bilateral arytenoid immobility. There was evidence on the CT scan of cricoarytenoid arthritis with fluid accumulation. Antibiotic treatment and two punctures for drainage allowed healing. There were cricoid and arytenoid calcifications. The patient recovered total and stable laryngeal mobility and function. This case is unusual, with features unlike those previously reported: intubation being the probable cause, the unusual clinical presentation with painless cricoid palpation, and the contrast between imaging findings during follow-up and the evolution under treatment. Indeed, there was an apparent discrepancy between the favourable clinical course and the CT-images revealing calcifications.