Pediatric supraglottoplasty

Abstract

Laryngomalacia is the most common congenital laryngeal abnormality, as well as the most common cause of stridor in infants. Laryngomalacia presents as a wide spectrum of disease from mild noisy breathing with feeding to life-threatening airway obstruction and failure to thrive. The stridor associated with laryngomalacia is generally inspiratory in nature from supraglottic airway collapse. Supraglottoplasty refers to a group of procedures used for the surgical management of laryngomalacia. In this chapter, the authors review laryngomalacia and describe the surgical techniques of supraglottoplasty.