Background
Major neck surgery is done typically under general anesthesia (GA). The neural blocks of the neck include blocking of the cervical plexus, superior laryngeal nerve, trans-laryngeal, block of the glossopharyngeal nerve, and local anesthetic infiltration. In patients with a high risk of GA, including those with pulmonary dysfunction, and prior myocardial ischemia or infarction, regional anesthesia is mainly indicated.
Case presentation
We record a case of a comorbid geriatric patient with dysphonia and left glottic mass that was diagnosed as squamous cell papilloma by transoral biopsy using curved biopsy forceps under local spray anesthesia, and after 6 months, this patient developed stridor for which tracheostomy, laryngofissure, and left cordectomy were then performed solely under neck blocks. Surgery was performed while the patient remained pain-free and stable without any morbidity throughout the operation.
Conclusions
In high-risk patients and low-resource health systems, regional anesthesia in neck surgery can be a reasonable and cheap alternate to general anesthetics.
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