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Paediatric stridor

Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK

Correspondence to:
For correspondence:
Mr Sam Majumdar
Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Sheffield Teaching Hospital, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, S10 2JF, UK; sammajumdar@doctors.org.uk

Keywords: croup; laryngomalacia; stertor; stridor; subglottic stenosis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Stridor can be defined as a high-pitched noise resulting from turbulent airflow through a partially obstructed upper airway. It may be associated with any phase of respiration, therefore, monophasic or biphasic, inspiratory or expiratory. Any obstruction at the level of the glottis or of the subglottis causes inspiratory stridor. Supraglottic obstruction will usually cause either stridor or more commonly stertor, a low pitched snoring type of noise. Obstruction of the extrathoracic trachea tends to cause biphasic stridor while obstruction of the intrathoracic trachea usually causes expiratory stridor. Partial obstruction of the upper airway at the nasopharyngeal or oropharyngeal level produces stertor. This is frequently associated with sleep. Stertor must be differentiated from true stridor. A stridor misdiagnosed for stertor will disguise the underlying cause and put the airway at risk of developing complete obstruction.

Stridor is a serious clinical sign that warrants immediate attention. The primary task in managing a . . . [Full text of this article]