Acute epiglottitis in adults: our experience in a tertiary care hospital

Acute epiglottitis is a life threatening disorder. There is inflammatory edema of the arytenoids, aryepiglottic folds and the epiglottis. Acute epiglottitis can occur at any age. The responsible organism used to be Hemophilus influenza type B, but infection with group A b-hemolytic streptococci has become more frequent after the widespread use of Hemophilus influenza vaccination. There were 20 patients, 12 males and 8 females. The main presenting symptoms were sore throat, odynophagia , muffled voice and fever. In the majority of cases, examination of the larynx showed a edematous, erythematous epiglottis and edematous aryepiglottis folds and false cords. . Two patients required intubation and admission to the intensive care unit. Both patients were extubated successfully after 72 hours. The antibiotic regimen used in our series was intravenous cefotaxime and metronidaole.