Original article
Proximal airway function 8 to 16 years after laryngomalacia: Follow-up using flow-volume loop studies*

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3476(85)80128-1Get rights and content

Twenty children who had endoscopically confirmed laryngomalacia were reviewed at 8 to 16 years of age. All had developed stridor in the first 6 weeks of life; stridor had stopped or largely resolved by age 4 years. Proximal airway function was assessed by expiratory and inspiratory flow volume loops and compared with control values. These children as a group had variable extrathoracic obstruction to inspiratory airflow, as indicated by a significantly low maximal inspiratory flow at 50% of vital capacity and a high mean ratio of maximal expiratory to maximal inspiratory flow at 50% vital capacity. Although limitation to inspiratory airflow was detectable in later childhood, it was not associated with troublesome symptoms. Significant stridor always resolved by 4 years of age, but some children experienced minor stridor under stress in later childhood.

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    However, quite distinct from this group of children, there are also children who are otherwise-healthy and in whom laryngomalacia has persisted to an unusually late age. These children have not been well-characterised in the past, but mentioned in amongst larger series of young children with laryngomalacia [3,5–8]. This neurologically normal group with no comorbidities should be recognised as a different entity from those children with a neuromuscular disorder and also from classical infant laryngomalacia.

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1

Dr. Macfarlane was supported by a Wellcome Foundation Travel Grant.

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