Complications Related to Laryngeal Mask Airway Use and a Postoperative Diagnosis of Reinke Edema: A Case Study.

This case report describes a partial airway obstruction encountered with the use of a laryngeal mask airway and the inability to deliver adequate tidal volumes despite manipulation and device exchange. The patient later received a diagnosis of Reinke edema, a polypoid degeneration of the true vocal folds, which caused a ball-valve effect intermittently obstructing the glottic aperture with ventilation from excessive bulk and redundancy of the true vocal folds. This condition classically results in dysphonia without airway obstruction demonstrable in awake and spontaneous ventilating patients but became apparent and was readily diagnosed with initiation of positive pressure ventilation, causing an obstruction of flow. Contributing factors to this condition were the preexisting diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease and cigarette smoking.