View larger version (74K):
|
A 47-year-old woman with diabetes was seen in the emergency room with difficulty swallowing, bilateral chest pain, and a foreign-body sensation in her throat. Earlier that day, she had undergone a root canal under local anesthesia. Her symptoms were initially attributed to an allergic reaction to the anesthetic. Examination showed crepitus in her neck. A radiograph of the neck showed emphysema with prevertebral air in the cervical soft tissues. The likely mechanism for the introduction of air was injection by means of a high-speed dental drill through the soft tissue adjacent to the roots of the lower molars. Surgical procedures, . . . [Full Text of this Article] |
Previous
