Agenesis of the Trachea

Abstract

Respiratory distress in the newborn requires emergent treatment. Many times, the physician can simply intubate the neonate, gaining airway control, and then proceed to find a cause for the distress among a differential diagnosis. Other times, emergent tracheotomy is performed because intubation is unsuccessful. We present a patient with agenesis of the trachea, a rare anomaly of the respiratory tract that is uniformly fatal, despite attempts at intervention.