Surgical Treatment for Acute Epiglottitis

Abstract

Acute epiglottitis is a critical disease that causes rapid dyspnea and occasionally requires a tracheotomy to be performed. In this study, thirty-two patients (23 male and 9 female) with acute epiglottitis who had visited Kagoshima University Hospital between 1999 and 2002 were retrospectively investigated. Their ages ranged from 13 to 75 with a mean age of 47 years. The severity of epiglottis swelling was classified into three grades; mild, moderate, and severe. Two patients with severe swelling and one with moderate swelling underwent tracheotomy because of serious dyspnea. Scarification of the epiglottis was done in most patients classified as moderate or severe. There were no patients that had any complications or whose condition became worse after scarification. These findings suggest that a tracheotomy might be essential for severe grade case and scarification might be useful for the treatment of acute epiglottitis.