[A clinical study of acute epiglottitis in adults]

Abstract

Acute epiglottitis may trigger death because of serious airway obstruction. It is necessary to perform emergency and accurate airway intervention. In this retrospective study we present 216 cases of acute epiglottitis in adults. Airway management was done in 39 cases (18.1%), but most cases were treated conservatively. The mean patient age was 53 years and the male-to-female ratio was 1.9 to 1.0. The most frequent symptoms were sore throat (88%). The mean duration from symptom onset to consultation to our hospital was 1.9 days in the airway management group and 2.9 days in the conservatively treated group, which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Focusing on epiglottal swelling seen under the flexible laryngoscope, the percentage of airway management was 52.6% for swelling of the unilateral false vocal cords and 12.9% for swelling of the aryepiglottic fold. A statistically significant difference was also seen in complaints of respiratory difficulties (p<0.01), the rise of WBC (p<0.01), the rise of CRP (p<0.01), and diabetes mellitus (p<0.01).