Introduction.

Penetrating neck trauma represents an unfortunate event with a low incidence and high diagnostic and therapeutic complexity, which represents a challenge for the general surgeon.

Clinical case.

A 20-year-old female patient, who suffered a cervical wound from a firearm projectile, secondarily developing an aerodigestive lesion. An expectant treatment was carried out in a high complexity hospital, with a favorable evolution.

Discussion.

In the literature there is a clear debate regarding the management of penetrating neck injuries and suspected occult organic injury. In our patient, the aerodigestive injury was treated by observation and clinical follow-up.

Conclusions.

The management of a patient with aerodigestive injury can be corroborated by diagnostic images and can be treated expectantly with a successful result, without adding morbidity and with an adequate impact on the proper use of available resources.

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