Abstract
Objective:
Life-threatening airway obstruction is a dreaded complication of mediastinal masses. The acute management is difficult and catastrophic outcomes have been reported. We describe our experience in a Medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and discuss the management options.
Design:
Retrospective observational study.
Setting:
1,600-bed tertiary-care hospital.
Patients and Participants:
13 patients were treated between January 1996 and February 2010.
Interventions:
All patients were mechanically ventilated. Three received emergent chemotherapy, 10 underwent airway stenting and 2 underwent surgery.
Measurements and Results:
The median age was 51 years (range 13 to 64). In 5 patients (36%), the diagnosis was only made after ICU admission. Two had benign pathologies (retrosternal goitre and bronchogenic cyst) and 3 had lymphoma. The remaining 8 had metastatic mediastinal lymphadenopathy. All were successfully weaned off the ventilator (range 0 to 5 days). All patients with benign pathologies and lymphoma were still alive with a mean follow-up of 2.8 years (range 1 to 7 years). All patients with metastatic disease died, with a mean survival of 3.8 months (range 1 to 9 months).
Conclusion:
In the management of life-threatening airway obstruction by mediastinal masses, we reported the heterogeneous nature of this group of conditions. Therefore in the intensive care setting, a definitive diagnosis needs to be established urgently, as treatment and prognosis are highly dependent on the underlying etiology. We propose categorising patients into subgroups and combining various therapeutic modalities.