Postoperative lingual nerve injury following airway management: A literature review.
Mohamed Aly, Rohan Dadak, Cheng Lin and 1 others
PMID 39189112WHAT IT FOUND
Lingual nerve injury after airway management causes tongue numbness and taste loss, resolving in weeks to months.
Supraglottic airway use is a key risk factor. Proper device sizing and cuff pressure monitoring are recommended to prevent this complication.
Key findings
01Injury presented as tongue numbness or taste disturbance within 24 hours, with resolution times varying from 2 hours to 19 months.
02Most cases involved supraglottic airways (21 of 32 patients), with risk factors including female sex, prolonged operations, and difficult intubation.
03Management was primarily observational, though some cases used steroids or vitamins; prevention relies on correct airway sizing and pressure monitoring.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review relies heavily on case reports (30 of 35 included studies), which cannot establish causality or incidence rates. The search was limited to English-language publications. Data on BMI and Mallampati score as risk factors were insufficient to draw conclusions. The review only included injuries related to airway management, excluding dental or surgical causes which are common sources of lingual nerve injury.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this is a common complication or that steroids are the standard treatment. The evidence comes from case reports, not controlled trials, and most patients recovered with observation alone. The review does not prove that specific airway techniques caused the injuries, only that they occurred in that context.