Acute Epiglottitis in Adults-from the Standview of Inspection on Autopsy

Abstract

This article presents the post-mortem findings of acute epiglottitis in adults. Acute epiglottitis is a serious disease because of its potential for sudden fatal obstruction in a previously healthy individual. We reported on a case of adult epiglottitis who could not be resuscitated. The patient had complained dyspnea. An upper airway obstruction occurred within an hour after an intravenous steroid injection. The patient underwent emergent tracheotomy. The patient died after 17days after the tracheotomy. The autopsy revealed that inflamed cells had infiltrated around an epiglottic cyst. This evidence indicated that an epiglottic cyst is one of the risk factors which can cause or make worse acute epiglottitis.