Abstract
We retrospectively reviewed clinical findings of 73 patients with acute epiglottitis who were hospitalized and received treatment between April, 1993 and October, 2008. There were 52 men and 21 women and their ages ranged from 19 to 70 years old (median : 47). The most frequent seasons the patients suffered from acute epiglottitis were spring and autumn. The chief symptoms were sore throat in 67 cases (91.7%), dyspnea in 24 (32.9%) and high fever in 20 (27.2%) followed by small number of patients with other symptoms, such as incongruity of pharynx etc. We divided the patients into the groups: stage I, stage II and stage III based on the classification of Kikuchi. There were 31 Stage I (42.4%), 18 stage II (24.6%) and 24 stage III (32.4%) patients. In the stage III, 14 (19.1%) fulminant type patients were included. We confirmed that the Kikuchi classifications well reflected the clinical status of epiglottitis. As a treatment, all patients were treated with intravenous antibiotics, and intravenous steroids were administered to 71 (97.2%) patients. Six (8.2%) of stage III cases required air way management by tracheostomy
