A surprising cause of wheezing in a morbidly obese patient: a case report

Abstract

Lakshmi N Kurnutala, Minal Joshi, Hattiyangadi Kamath, Joel Yarmush Department of Anesthesiology, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY, USA Abstract: A typical patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has small airway disease, which often responds to bronchodilators. If the patient is obese, he or she may be further compromised and not tolerate being in the supine position. We present a case of a patient with history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea with acute renal failure and urosepsis scheduled for an emergent debridement of Fournier's gangrene. In this patient, the fiberoptic intubation was performed in semi-Fowler's position, and tracheomalacia was observed. Keywords: tracheomalacia, difficult airway, fiberoptic intubation, COPD