Acute epiglottitis in adults. A management protocol based on a 17-year material.

During a 17-year period 75 adult patients were treated for acute epiglottis. Twenty of the patients had respiratory symptoms and in 13 patients an artificial airway was established by means of nasotracheal intubation or tracheotomy. One patient died of suffocation and one other patient had severe incapacitating brain damage because of cardiac arrest in combination with respiratory obstruction. All the other patients were discharged from the hospital without any sequelae. On the basis of our 17-year material and the literature, a protocol for the handling of patients with suspected acute epiglottitis is presented.