Traumatic retropharyngeal hematoma is a rare condition and may be lethal in some cases.In patients with this condition, the absence of a vertebral fracture or a major vascular injury is extremely rare.We present the case of a 92-year-old man who hit his forehead by slipping on the floor in his house.He had no symptoms at the time; however, he experienced throat pain and dyspnea at 6 hours after the injury.On arrival, he complained of severe dyspnea; therefore, an emergency endotracheal intubation was performed.A lateral neck roentgenogram after intubation showed dilatation of the retropharyngeal and retrotracheal space and no evidence of a cervical vertebral fracture.Cer-vical computed tomography (CT) with contrast medium re-vealed a massive hematoma extending from the retropharyngeal to the superior mediastinal space but no evidence of contrast medium extravasation or a vertebral fracture.However, sagittal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed an anterior longitudinal ligament (C levels)injury.We determined that the cause of the hematoma was an anterior longitudinal ligament injury and a minor vascu-lar injury around the injured ligament.Therefore, we recom-mend that patients with retropharyngeal hematoma undergo sagittal cervical MRI when roentgehography and CT reveal no evidence of injury.