Retropharyngeal abscesses, most common among young children, can cause sore throat, fever, neck stiffness, and stridor. Diagnosis requires lateral neck x-ray or CT. Treatment is with endotracheal intubation, drainage, and antibiotics.
Retropharyngeal abscesses develop in the retropharyngeal lymph nodes at the back of the pharynx, adjacent to the vertebrae. They can be seeded by infection of the pharynx, sinuses, adenoids, or nose. Retropharyngeal abscesses occur mainly in children 1 to 8 years because the retropharyngeal lymph nodes begin to recede around age 4 to 5 years. However, adults may develop infection after ingestion of a foreign body or after instrumentation. Common organisms include aerobic (Streptococcus and Staphylococcus species) and anaerobic (Bacteroides and Fusobacterium species) bacteria and, occasionally in adults and children, HIV and the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.
The most serious consequences include airway obstruction, septic shock, rupture of the abscess into the airway resulting in aspiration pneumonia or asphyxia, mediastinitis, carotid rupture, and suppurative thrombophlebitis of the internal jugular veins (Lemierre syndrome).
Symptoms and Signs of Retropharyngeal Abscess
Symptoms and signs of a retropharyngeal abscess are usually preceded in children by an acute upper respiratory infection and in adults by foreign body ingestion or instrumentation. Children may have odynophagia, dysphagia, fever, cervical lymphadenopathy, nuchal rigidity, stridor, dyspnea, snoring or noisy breathing, and torticollis.
Adults may have severe neck pain but less often have stridor.
The posterior pharyngeal wall may bulge to one side.
Diagnosis of Retropharyngeal Abscess
X-ray
CT
A retropharyngeal abscess is suspected in patients with severe, unexplained sore throat and neck stiffness, stridor, or noisy breathing.
Lateral soft-tissue x-rays of the neck, taken in the maximum possible hyperextension,during inspiration, and without rotation, may show focal widening of the prevertebral soft tissues, reversal of normal cervical lordosis, air in the prevertebral soft tissues, or erosion of the adjacent vertebral body.
Image provided by Clarence T. Sasaki, MD.
CT can help diagnose questionable cases, help differentiate cellulitis from an abscess, and assess extent of the abscess.
Treatment of Retropharyngeal Abscess
Usually surgical drainage
Treatment regimens are based mainly on observational data (1
Treatment reference
1. Cheng J, Elden L: Children with deep space neck infections: Our experience with 178 children. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 148 (6):1037–1042, 2013. doi: 10.1177/0194599813482292 Epub 2013 Mar 21.
