[Pressure damage of the hypopharynx caused by stomach tubes]

Analysis of 70 cases of death after intensive care of different survival time and various causes of death. All persons were intubated and had nasogastric feeding-tubes. Bleedings into the PCA-muscles were found in 50% of all cases (especially in short-term survival: up to 80%). Bleedings in this region are not specifical; there are many possible causes. In 27 cases lesions of the hypopharyngeal wall as the result of pressure by the lying tubes were found up to ulcerations; sometimes just after about 1 day. Frequency and deepness of this lesions increased with the time of survival. Even if the hypopharyngeal wall was intact, there are often circumscripted (histologically detected) destructions inside of the PCA muscle(s), caused in part by the pressure of the tube.