Article
Severe upper airway obstruction caused by ulcerative laryngitis
M Hatherill, L Reynolds, Z Waggie, A Argent
Paediatric Intensive
Care Unit, Institute of Child Health, Red Cross War Memorial
Children's Hospital, Klipfontein Road, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa
Correspondence to: Dr Hatherill hatheril{at}ich.uct.ac.za
Accepted 11 June
2001
AIMS
To present our experience of
severe upper airway obstruction caused by ulcerative laryngitis in children.
METHODSRetrospective case note
review of 263 children with severe upper airway obstruction and a
clinical diagnosis of croup admitted to a paediatric intensive care
unit (PICU) over a five year period.
RESULTSA total of 148 children
(56%) underwent microlaryngoscopy (Storz 3.0 rigid telescope).
Laryngeal ulceration with oedema was documented in 15 of these children
(10%), median age 14 months (range 10-36) and median weight 10 kg
(range 6-12). Twenty seven of the children who underwent
microlaryngoscopy (18%) also had ulcerative gingivostomatitis
consistent with herpes simplex virus infection. Ulcerative laryngitis
was documented in nine of 27 (33%) children with, and in six of 121 (5%) children without, coexistent ulcerative gingivostomatitis. One of
the 15 children did not require airway intervention. Nine children
required nasotracheal intubation for a median of 4 days (range 3-11)
and median PICU stay of 6 days (range 4-14). Five children required
tracheostomy ab initio, with a median PICU stay of 30 days (range
20-36), and duration of tracheostomy in situ for a median of 19 days
(range 15-253). All 15 children survived.
CONCLUSIONUlcerative laryngitis is
more common in our patient population than the few reports suggest.
Early diagnostic microlaryngoscopy is recommended in children with
severe croup who follow an atypical course.
Keywords: ulcerative laryngitis; croup; herpes simplex; microlaryngoscopy
© 2001 by Archives of Disease in Childhood
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
