[Airway Management in a Patient with Forestier's Disease].

Airway management in a patient with Forestier's disease can be challenging clinically because this disease may cause not only dysphagia but also airway obstruction due to the compression of the pharynx and esophagus caused by the ossification of anterior longitudinal ligament. We report our anesthetic management in a patient with Forestier's disease. Meanwhile, we studied the causes of difficult airway and the most suitable airway device for a patient with this disease from a standpoint of anatomy of upper airway. Our study indicated the possibility that the most suitable airway device differed depending on the actual location of the ossification of anterior longitudinal ligament in the cervical spine and that more prudent airway management would be required if its lesion location extended to upper cervical spine.