Management of retro-pharyngeal abcesses in an ent department in dakar (senegal)

Introduction: Retro-pharyngeal abscesses (RPA) refer to purulent collections in the retro-pharyngeal zone [1-2]. It is an infectious and respiratory ENT emergency, mainly found during early childhood. We illustrate through this study the diagnostic and therapeutic peculiarities of RPA in a developing country. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at the Lamine Sine Diop ENT Clinic at FANN teaching hospital in Dakar. It included 17 children aged from 0 to 16 years hospitalized for the management of RPA. A total of 17 patients were collected during a 7-year-period range from January 2013 to December 2019. Results: The mean age was 20 months and the sex ratio 3.2. Supra-laryngeal dyspnea was the revealing symptom in 76%. Bulging of the oropharynx posterior wall was found in 76% of cases and cervical swelling was noted in 47% of the series. Nine (09) cases of fever were noted. A profile X-ray of the nasopharynx allowed to set the diagnosis in 70% of the cases. The treatment consisted of surgical drainage under general or local anesthesia byendo-buccal route combined with antibiotic treatment. The collections were located in the posterior wall of the oropharynx in 15 cases and in 2 cases in the posterior wall of the hypopharynx. The follow-up were simple in 76% of the cases with an average hospital stay length of 07 days. Conclusion: The retro-pharyngeal abscess is a fairly common complication of rhinopharyngitis in pediatric ENT. It exceptionally occurs in adults. The diagnosis is made in our context on the basis of febrile respiratory obstruction due to the late consultation. Standard radiography is useful in the absence of a CT scan to initiate emergency treatment based on surgical drainage combined with antibiotic therapy.