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Management of epiglottitis

Authoring team

Acute epiglottitis is a paediatric emergency. Management and treatment is as follows;

DO NOT:

  • panic
  • alarm the parents or child
  • examine the child in any way - especially do not try to visualize the epiglottitis using a tongue depressor

DO:

  • call a senior anaesthetist, paediatrician and ENT surgeon
  • alert theatres or ICU; the child needs to be admitted immediately

If respiratory arrest appears to be intervening before the senior help arrives, nebulised adrenaline can be used; this buys time but does not solve the underlying problem.

Diagnostically radiology is rarely required, and delaying treatment in order to image the child is inappropriate.

Reference

  1. Abdallah C; Acute epiglottitis: Trends, diagnosis and management. Saudi J Anaesth. 2012 Jul;6(3):279-81

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