[Acute epiglottitis in adults. Diagnosis and treatment in our experience of 30 cases].

OBJECTIVE

We present the 15-year-long experience of 2 hospitals in our region regarding the therapeutic management of acute epiglottitis in adults.

PATIENTS AND METHOD: Thirty patients with an average age of 46 years were diagnosed as having acute epiglottitis, either by indirect laryngoscopy or fibroscopy, and studied through a series of clinical parameters: age, sex, personal history, complementary tests, clinical symptoms, treatment, evolution, and average stay in hospital.

RESULTS

We found an obvious predominance of this urgent pathology in males, with most patients reporting dysphagia or odynophagia (90 %). Dyspnoea was confirmed in 40 % of the cases but only 7 required intubation, coniotomy, or tracheotomy. The complications recorded include one case of mediastinitis and another of death due to sudden cardiorespiratory arrest.

CONCLUSIONS

We feel that a specific protocol must be established to take into account, apart from admission to hospital, personal contact with an intensive care unit (ICU) even though in most cases it is ultimately unnecessary to ensure airway patency as seen in the various case series published.