Acute epiglottitis in children and adults: a large-scale incidence study

With the introduction of an anti-haemophilus type B vaccine, a standard incidence rate for acute epiglottitis is needed to judge its efficacy. Epiglottitis is thought to be more common in children than in adults, but this relation has never been clearly established. This article attempts to evaluate the incidence of this disease. A review of the literature regarding the incidence is correlated to new data from the 1981 Census of Canada and the Med-Echo System of the province of Quebec. It suggests that the incidence rate is approximately 60/million for children (1/17,000), whereas it is 10/million for adults (1/103,000). These rates are based on the analysis of 712 pediatric cases and 257 adult cases. After a review from various sources, my estimation is that a slightly lower than 3-to-1 ratio of cases is probable between the pediatric and adult cases of acute epiglottitis.