PHRENIC-NERVE PALSY AFTER INTERNAL JUGULAR-VEIN PUNCTURE

Two cases of paralysis of the diaphragm occurring after puncture of the internal jugular vein are reported. Both were old cancer patients, requiring an internal jugular venous catheter for intravenous feeding. Although the catheter was easily placed in both cases, the diagnosis of diaphragmatic paralysis was made postoperatively. The first patient remained asymptomatic, despite paradoxical breathing when lying supine; there was no change in her condition up to her death 4 months later. The second patient became increasingly breathless, with hypoxia and hypercapnia, during recovery from a gastrostomy under general anaesthesia. She required artificial ventilation, from which she could not be weaned and died 25 days later. A lesion of the phrenic nerve is possible when placing an internal jugular venous catheter, because they are closely related behind the sternocleidomastoid muscle. In the opposite to compression by a haematoma, or transient blockade following local anaesthetic infiltration, such a direct injury may be irreversible.