Hi, this is Tom, and in this episode I'm going to be going through epiglottitis, and you can find notes at 0.0 tofinals.com

and in the 0 to finals pediatrics book, and you can find flashcards and questions at members.0tofinals.com.

And at the end of the episode, we'll go through some questions on epiglottitis,

so you can test yourself on what you just heard.

So let's jump straight in.

Epiglottitis involves inflammation and swelling of the epiglottis,

usually due to infection.

The epiglottis can completely occlude the airway within hours, and this makes epiglottitis

a life-threatening emergency.

The key causes of epiglottitis are hemophilus influenza type B, which is the leading cause but is now rare due to vaccination,

and Streptococcus pneumoniae. Epiglottitis can occur at any age including adulthood.

The typical age is two to seven years. Let's go through the presentation.

Epiglottitis can present similarly to croup, but with a more rapid onset and some

additional features.

Typical symptoms include a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, which is dysphagia,

painful swallowing, which is odinophagia,

high fever, stridor, drooling, and a muffled hot potato voice.

On general inspection, the child may be scared and quiet, have a toxic appearance, be sat in the tripod position where they're sat forward with a hand on each knee, and they tend to extend

the neck forward along with the chin. A tom tip tip for you, in exams suspect epiglottitis in an unvaccinated child with a high fever,

sore throat, dysphagia and drooling.

Next let's go through investigations.

Investigations should not be routinely performed in suspected epiglottitis. They may scare the child

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