A sticky foreign body in patient’s airway

Abstract

A 38 year old man was scheduled to have an examination under anesthesia of his perianal region as a day case procedure.  He had needle phobia, was a smoker, and fasted for more than 6 hours. Intravenous (IV) access was obtained uneventfully and general anesthesia was induced with IV fentanyl and propofol.  An i-gel size 4 was inserted with ease and ability to ventilate was checked. The patient breathed spontaneously through the surgery.  Anesthesia was maintained with sevoflurane in oxygen. The surgery proceeded uneventfully and the patient was wheeled into level 1 recovery with i-gel in situ breathing room air.

As he recovered fully, the recovery nurse took out the i-gel. A large yellowish sticky material was noticed on its cuff, initially thought to be a large mucous plug. A close inspection revealed it to be a chunky piece of chewing gum (Figures 1 & 2)