This Article  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

FRED LATHROP, JR, MD

Am J Dis Child. 1988;142(12):1264.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Sir.—The article by Mauro and colleagues confirms an opinion I have held for 33 years of private pediatric practice. It has been my policy to examine the epiglottis visually in cases of croup to rule out epiglottitis, despite articles advising the substitution of a lateral neck roentgenogram for direct visualization. It is reassuring to find vindication in print.

My justification involves the following arguments:

The incidence of epiglottitis in my practice has not been the 4% reported by Mauro et al, but less than 0.1%. I have treated two cases in 33 years, compared with over 100 cases of croup annually. The hospital emergency department must receive the worst cases.

With the infant reclining and the neck extended, using a tongue depressor (I use narrow "Popsicle" sticks that are thicker and bend less easily than adult tongue depressors), a quick look elicits either a view of

Author Affiliations
745 Sheridan Ave Plainfield, NJ 07060

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?