[Differential diagnosis and therapy of abnormalities of the respiratory tract]

Congenital disorders of respiration, food intake and function of the voice indicate abnormalities in the rhinolaryngotracheal or oesophageal regions of the air passages and oesophagus. They immediately need differential diagnostic clarification in interdisciplinary cooperation. Methods of a sophisticated tubus endoscopy, applied also under emergency situations, play a vital role. The therapy aims at eliminating life-threatening ventilation disorders within a short time by pharyngotracheal intubation and within a longer period by tracheostomy in order to let prenatally inhibited developments postnatally come into effect, if need be to support these differentiation processes by endoscopic interventions or to perform plastically constructive operations at a prognostically convenient time.