Spontaneous retropharyngeal abscess presenting as delirium in a frail older woman: a case-based review.

Introduction: Retropharyngeal abscess (RPA) is an uncommon infection in older people, which usually presents with localized upper airway symptoms.

Case presentation: We present a case of RPA in a 69-year-old frail woman with co-morbidities, who presented atypically with delirium. She initially complained of general symptoms of malaise, body aches and general decline. Her symptoms progressed to hypoactive delirium before she started to localize her complaints to the upper airway. The delirium presentation of RPA is not commonly reported in the literature. Co-morbidities and frailty are likely to be the underlying risk factors for delirium presentation in this case. Most of the RPA cases reported in older people in the literature presented typically with localized symptoms, however these cases had lower burden of morbidities and reported no frailty. In our case report, poor mouth hygiene and dental caries were thought to be the source of infection. Early intervention with antibiotic treatment for total of four weeks resulted in a full recovery.

Conclusion: RPA may present with delirium in older people with frailty and co-morbidities. Poor oral hygiene and dental caries, if left untreated, may progress into serious deep space neck infection.