Tongue Paralysis after Orotracheal Intubation in a Patient with Primary Mediastinal Tumor

Hypoglossal nerve injury is a very rare complication of anaesthesia airway management. The cause argued to this lesion is neuropathy of this nerve provoked by its compression due to inflation of the cuff within the larynx or damage secondary to hyperextension of the neck during a difficult intubation. Although most cases describe Tapia ́s syndrome with hypoglossus and recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis, the cases which describe only bilateral hypoglossus palsy are very unfrequent. We report here a case of bilateral palsy of hypoglossus nerves in a 28-year-old man undergoing a diagnostic anterior mediastinotomy as a part of the study of a mediastinal mass.