Life-threatening complication of recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring with EMG reinforced silicone ETT.

We present 2 cases with complication of herniation of a specially designed endotracheal tube (ETT) cuff used for laryngeal nerve monitoring during thyroid surgery. Abrupt and total blockage of ventilation has occurred at 35th and 40th minutes of general anesthesia. In an animal trachea, we showed that overinflated cuff may herniate and block ETT tip easily.