[Treatment of respiratory distress caused by laryngeal obstruction]

Respiratory distress due to laryngeal obstruction produces a more or less dramatic syndrome depending on the cause of the obstruction and its evolution in time. Treatment should be immediate in order to avoid death or cerebral and cardiac sequelae. It consists, above all, of restoring the patency of the respiratory tract, the short-circuit obtained by intubation or tracheotomy should, in no case, leave any laryngeal sequelae. The authors present their personal series based on a study of respiratory distress due to laryngeal obstruction in the child. These observations were obtained from a large series of 480 cases of laryngeal dyspnea observed over the last 5 years on the E.N.T. unit of the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyons. They contrast a very small number of sub-glottic laryngitis cases requiring intubation or tracheotomy to a very large number of cases of subglottic laryngitis, even with respiratory distress, which recovered with well designed medical treatment. Foreign bodies, of which they report eleven cases, all required emergency surgery. They emphasize the severity of this cause. As far as papillomas and angiomas are concerned, they require emergency treatment, either straightaway or after a trial of medical treatment.