Acute epiglottitis in children is very rare in Japan. As far as we searched, there have beenonly two patients under 7 years of age reported in Japanese medical journals. Since this pathological condition is potentially lethal and supposed to increase its incidence, we have to know how to manage the condition. In this paper, we reported a child case of acute epiglottitis and would like to share the experience.
The patient was a 6.5-year-old boy. He visited a hospital complaining of sore throat, high body temperature (39.3°C) and dyspnea which had started 9 hours before hospitalization.
Fiberscopy of the larynx revealed the red and moderately swollen epiglottis. The diagnosis was acute epiglottitis.
Topical and systemic treatments mainly with steroid, antibiotics and oxygen inhalation were effectively done to improve the airway problems. The patient recovered completely without any airway preservation such as tracheotomy or tracheal intubation. However, previous reports on acute epiglottitis in children strongly recommend us to keep a good airway prior to the treatment.
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