Acute upper airway obstruction due to tonsillitis necessitating emergency cricothyroidotomy

Abstract

A 17-year-old man was admitted to Accident & Emergency out of hours with unilateral tonsillar enlargement covering more than 75% of his oropharyngeal inlet. He appeared calm and stable on initial presentation, but in a short span of time rapidly deteriorated, leading to near complete airway obstruction necessitating an emergency awake cricothyroidotomy. Tracheostomy and tonsillectomy were done after this, he was ventilated postoperatively in intensive therapy unit and discharged home in a week. This is a rare clinical scenario in a patient presenting with palatine tonsillitis. A few subtle points in the history and examination alerted the team and prevented a risky inter hospital transfer for ear, nose and throat review. This is the first reported case in UK of palatine tonsillitis not due to infectious mononucleosis presenting with acute upper airway obstruction in a patient with no airway anomalies. It may also have been a varied presentation of COVID-19.