Unilateral Variant of NGT Syndrome: An Uncommon Complication of a Very Common Intervention

Abstract

The common complications of nasogastric tube placement include gastrointestinal—tube malposition, coiling, or knotting, impaired function of the lower esophageal sphincter leading to reflux of gastric contents, esophagitis, gastrointestinal bleeding, and aspiration pneumonia. Sofferman et al. in 1990, described a clinical entity constituted by life-threatening bilateral vocal cord paralysis, presenting as throat pain, stridor and respiratory compromise as Nasogastric syndrome (NGTS). There are fewer than 50 cases of NGTS described in the literature, till date, let alone a unilateral variant of the same. Here we have described two cases of unilateral variant of NGTS, the management, outcome, and a detailed literature review of the previous reported cases. The two cases described were identified in the same year, highlighting the fact that, the entity might be more common, and needs more clinical attention than previously estimated.