Acute upper airway obstruction as a life-threatening complication of ventral bulla osteotomy: report of two consecutive cases

Case summary This paper presents two cases of acute postoperative upper airway obstruction following ventral bulla osteotomy (VBO) in cats. The first cat underwent a unilateral left-sided VBO for a suspected inflammatory polyp. The second cat underwent a single-session bilateral VBO procedure for bilateral otitis media. In the first case, immediate re-intubation and a gradual lightening of the anaesthetic plane resolved the clinical signs; in the second case, the patient deteriorated and went into acute cardiorespiratory arrest and received cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Both patients recovered well and were discharged home 3 days after surgery. Both cases were reported to show no further clinical signs on postoperative follow-up 3 weeks and 4 months after surgery, respectively. Relevance and novel information Upper airway obstruction should be regarded as a potential complication of VBO in cats.