Luwang, April 29 - Choking is very common in infants and young children when feeding, and many parents think that a few coughs after choking on milk are fine, which rarely leads to very serious consequences. However, recently, the 2-month-old baby (Yangyang) from Jining experienced a catastrophe of life and death, because of a choking on milk and almost died, and finally turned the corner in Tai'an Maternal and Child Health Hospital. It turned out that Yangyang was hospitalized in the local hospital in January this year because of cough, and suddenly choked on milk on the third day, and then developed a severe cough and difficulty breathing, and the local hospital immediately rescued according to the aspiration process, but the child's condition was not relieved, but continued to worsen, and the tracheal intubation was also extremely difficult, and the airway pressure was very high, as if the trachea was blocked. With questions, the local doctor immediately contacted Director Meng Chen, a well-known respiratory endoscopy expert in Shandong Province, and after the expert's suggestion, he was urgently transferred from the local 120 to the Second Department of Surgery of Tai'an Maternal and Child Health Hospital that night.
According to recollection, Yangyang's condition was extremely unstable when he was admitted to the hospital, the ventilator ventilation was not smooth, and the blood oxygen index was very unsatisfactory, so he immediately performed an emergency tracheoscopy for the child, and found that the child had severe stenosis in the upper trachea, and the 2.8mm tracheoscope could barely pass.
Severe tracheal stenosis can lead to airway obstruction, ventilation disorders, recurrent respiratory tract infections, and once the trachea spasm, the patient can suffocate and die at any time, and surgery is the most effective way to cure it. In order to save Yangyang's life, the cardiothoracic team of the Second Department of Surgery and the expert team of Professors Meng Chen and Feng Zhiyu quickly formulated a treatment plan: conservative treatment to stabilize the disease, and active surgery to remove the root cause of the disease. After sufficient preoperative preparation, the expert team of the Second Department of Surgery performed Slide tracheoplasty under cardiopulmonary bypass for Yangyang on 2024-01-25, and surgically incised the stenosis and expanded the anastomosis. Although Yangyang's chest was left with a 6cm scar, it was exchanged for a new life.
The incidence of tracheal stenosis in childhood diseases is about 0.01%-0.02%, which is mostly caused by congenital factors and acquired factors. Since December 2023, the cardiothoracic team of the Second Department of Surgery of Tai'an Maternal and Child Health Hospital has successfully completed more than 10 cases of tracheal stenosis surgery in children in cooperation with the cardiothoracic team of Shandong Maternal and Child Health Hospital, successfully filling the gap in this medical field in Tai'an. In the future, the hospital will continue to strengthen cooperation with the top teams in China, continuously improve its business level, and escort children suffering from cardiothoracic diseases in the city. (Correspondents: Li Xin, Wang Yixuan)