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88th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

24.05. - 27.05.2017, Erfurt

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Variations in the cartilaginous wireframe of adult human trachea

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  • corresponding author Ivan Valkadinov - Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Department of Neurosurgery and ENT diseases, Medical University, Varna, Bulgaria
  • Desislava Cherneva - Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Department of Neurosurgery and ENT diseases, Medical University, Varna, Bulgaria
  • Georgi Valchev - Department of imaging diagnostics and radiotherapy, Medical University, Varna, Bulgaria
  • Nikolay Sapundzhiev - Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Department of Neurosurgery and ENT diseases, Medical University, Varna, Bulgaria
  • Anton Tonchev - Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, Medical University, Varna, Bulgaria

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 88. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Erfurt, 24.-27.05.2017. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2017. Doc17hno038

doi: 10.3205/17hno038, urn:nbn:de:0183-17hno0385

Published: April 13, 2017

© 2017 Valkadinov et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Introduction: The cartilaginous structure of the trachea is highly variable. In the everyday practice of otorhinolaryngology this structure is exposed on various surgical procedures. However, the deviations from the normal tracheal anatomy seem to be underestimated which may lead to complications of the operation performed. Our aim is to study the morphological alterations of the cartilaginous skeleton of the trachea in a population of adult individuals.

Methods: The variations of the cartilaginous wireframe in adult human trachea were evaluated in 18 cadaver tracheas (10 male, 8 female, mean age 69±8.9 y.) and in reconstructions from computed tomography (CT) studies in 14 adults (10 male and 4 female, mean age 63 y., 46-77 y.) tracheal reconstructions was performed. Detailed structural and quantitative characteristics of the cartilaginous wireframe were analyzed.

Results: In 17/18 cadaver tracheas cartilages with a shape, different from the simple horseshoe one, were observed. Of them 44.4% were found in the cervical part and 55.7% in the intrathoracic part of the organ. In 2/18 cases (11%) there was welding between the cricoid and the first tracheal cartilage. Regarding the CT reconstructions, in the neck region of 3/14 patients (27.2%) non-parallel cartilages were observed. Eight of them had up to 3 cartilages deviating from the normal horseshoe anatomy. In the thoracic area results were 11/14 (78.6%) and 10 (up to 5 deviations), respectively.

Conclusions: The cartilaginous wireframe of the human trachea is characterized with high degree of variability for both structural and quantitative parameters. Some of these anatomical variations could present a risk factor for early or postoperative complications.

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