Do you know what supraglottitis is?
What information do you have about epiglottis?
If you have a child, you need to know the meanings of these medical terms.
You need to know what symptoms superglutitis can cause in your baby.
In the following, we are going to talk about supraglottitis.
what you will read next :
Another name for supraglottitis is inflammation of the epiglottis or epiglottitis.
What is epiglottis and what is meant by epiglottitis?
Our throat is actually a four-way, One way to the nose, one way to the mouth, one way to the esophagus and one way to the trachea.
When we swallow food or drink water or swallow saliva, the trachea is covered with a leaf-like flap called the epiglottis so that food does not enter our trachea and airways.
This flap means the epiglottis has tissue that can become inflamed, infected, and swollen, causing epiglottitis or supraglottitis.
Bacteria infect the epiglottis and surrounding tissues. Following infection, severe inflammation develops in the epiglottis and surrounding tissues. Inflammation severely swells these tissues. It is due to this severe swelling that a person with epiglottitis or supraglottitis will have very difficulty breathing.
Epiglottitis is therefore a life-threatening disorder and disease because swelling of the epiglottis and surrounding tissues causes airway obstruction.
At what age is epiglottitis common?
Children aged two to five years
In the past, a bacterium called Haemophilus influenzae type B, abbreviated as HIb, was the main cause of life-threatening pediatric epiglottitis.
The HIb vaccine was developed in 1988, and with the vaccination of 15-month-old children with this vaccine, epiglottitis or Haemophilus influenzae type b is now rare, but HIb can still occur in immunocompromised children.
Very hot drinks:
Damage to the epiglottis due to ingestion of hard objects and also damage to epiglottis due to chicken pox blisters are other causes of supraglottitis.
Children under the age of one have a higher risk of developing epiglottitis or supraglottitis, although a person can develop superglutitis at any age.
Symptoms of supraglottitis
The clinical manifestations of supraglottitis are as follows:
- Sore throat:
Unfortunately, the sore throat of an infected person will become so severe in just a few hours that the person will also stop eating and swallowing saliva, as a result of which un swallowed saliva will flow from the corner of the infected person’s mouth.
- High fever:
Mouth temperature will be 38.3 degrees Celsius and above.
- The breathing sounds of the infected person become very abnormal:
Sounds like a Croup but no cough
This sound is a low-pitched sound that will be produced each time an infected person breathes, and doctors call it a stridor.
- Very difficult to breathe:
An infected person cannot get air into the lungs due to severe swelling in the trachea.
It is important to be aware that symptoms in epiglottitis or supraglottitis progress very quickly. You should not waste time imagining that your child will recover. Take the child and the person to the medical center immediately, or call the emergency room if the person really cannot breathe.
Calm the child or person and try to put him or her in a sitting position to make breathing easier, the person should not lie down.
Throat examination in these people should not be done by you.
The person should be examined at the hospital.
What may be needed for diagnosis?
To make a diagnosis, your doctor may need to ask for a simple picture of your baby’s neck to show swelling of the epiglottis.
Blood tests will also be taken while the child or infected person is hospitalized.
The most important goal of treatment in a child or person with superglutitis is confidence of the medical staff that the patient’s airway is open.
It may be necessary to examine the throat under sedation or anesthesia and insert a breathing tube to open the airway.
In the next step, intravenous injection of antibiotics is started.
In these stages, children and infected people are sedated so that they do not suffer from the presence of a tube in their airway.
It takes two to three days for the inflammation and swelling of the infection to decrease to such an extent that the affected person or child can breathe without discomfort or difficulty, the person stays in the hospital for a while to continue receiving intravenous fluids and anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics. When the person is discharged, it is necessary to continue taking oral antibiotics at home on time and for a sufficient period.
For prevention, 15-month-old children are said to be vaccinated with the HIb vaccine, given the pneumococcal vaccine, and, if possible, the chickenpox vaccine.
Be sure to tell your child’s doctor if your child encounters a person with suspected supraglottitis.