Epiglottitis following preparation for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

We describe a 7-year-old boy who developed acute, airway-threatening, non-infectious epiglottitis following high-dose cytosine arabinoside and total body irradiation preparative regimen for allogeneic BMT. Unlike gastrointestinal symptoms and oropharyngeal mucositis, acute epiglottitis is a previously unreported early complication following allogeneic BMT preparation. The pathogenesis of epiglottitis in our patient was presumably multifactorial, resulting from the combination of chemotherapy and irradiation. We recommend that this diagnosis be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with significant upper airway symptoms following BMT preparation.