Original Research Article IP Journal of Surgery and Allied Sciences, April-June 2019;1(2):32-34 32 Risk factors of retropharyngeal abscess Nikhil 1 , Shambulinga Killera 2 , Suryanarayana Joshyam 3 , Basavarajaiah D M 4* 1Senior Reader, 2Senior Resident, 3Professor, 4 Associate Professor, Dept. of ENT, BMCRI- Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India *Corresponding Author: Basavarajaiah D M Email: sayadri@gmail.com Abstract Many clinicians in the ENT find very difficult to diagnose the stage of infection and therapeutic options and also RPSAs lead with very limited literature available to focus the treatment option in limited resource set up. The main cutting edge of the study aims to correlate post surgical complications of RPSAs and also we know the age related incidence. A prospective and retrospective study was undertaken in the Department of ENT, BMCRI. The incumbent laboratory parameters like throat culture was done for all the suspected patients , Complete blood counts (CBC) , X-ray the results revealed that a total sixty suspected pediatric patients were were studied prospectively and retrospectively for the period of two years ,out of which males 35 and females was 25 respectively.Themean age of the patient was 8.96±1.25 years (IQR 4-14years ) median age was 10 years adiological impressions and Computed tomography (CT) scan was done at the greater accuracy. Reduced width of the air column is most common after post surgical intervention and it was found to be statistically significant (p<0.00) with respect to lower age group of the population. More research could be intervened to prevent the infections at poor resource set up. Keywords: Retropharyngeal abscess, Demographic profile, Surgical intervention, Prospective design. Introduction A retropharyngeal abscess will occurr, due to infection of tonsils commonly in children. It is usually needs to be drained and treated with antibiotics. RPSA is an abscess located in the tissues in the back of the throat behind the posterior pharyngeal wall .Because RPAs typically occurs in deep tissue, they are difficult to diagnose by physical examination alone. The signs and symptoms of retropharyngeal abscess are difficulty in breathing, difficulty swallowing, drooling, fever, severe throat pain, stridor (a high-pitched wheezing during inhalation), muscle spasms around the ribs when breathing. Many ENT-clinicians find difficult to diagnose the stage of infection and therapeutic options. The main cutting edge of the study aims to correlate post surgical complications of RPSAs and also we know the age related incidence and complications. Materials and Methods A prospective and retrospective study was undertaken in the Department of ENT, BMCRI, Bangalore during the period of 2015-16. The incumbent laboratory parameters like throat culture was done for all the suspected patients , Complete blood counts (CBC), X-ray radiological impressions and Computed tomography (CT) scan was done at the greater accuracy. The demographic profile and other defined parameters were collected from the pretested questionnaires and also exposed risk factors were collected and correlate with infection distribution. The collected data was analyzed by using SAS-16.50 version. Univaraiate analysis was performed to test the hypothesis. Results Fig. 1: Gender distribution Fig. 2: Family economic status