Airway problems in the neonatal population are often life threatening and raise challenging issues in diagnosis and management. The airway problems can result from congenital or acquired lesions and can be broadly classified into those causing obstruction or those due to an abnormal "communication" in the airway. Many different investigations are now available to identify the diagnosis and quan...

BACKGROUND Flexible bronchoscopy can play an important role in the evaluation of an airway lumen during therapeutic bronchoscopic procedures. Despite its potential usefulness, however, evaluation with a standard-sized bronchoscope, which cannot pass completely through a severely stenosed airway, is often unsatisfactory. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of prototype thin ...

A 33-year-old woman was admitted for a pseudocroup-like cough and wheezing after general anesthesia. Several months ago, she had undergone cardiac re-operation and turbinectomy, both of which had involved difficult intubations. Bronchoscopy indicated a pin-hall-like subglottic stenosis; therefore, emergency tracheotomy was performed. Six years later, a computed tomography scan demonstrated prog...

BACKGROUND Tracheobronchial stenosis is a known complication of endobronchial tuberculosis. Despite antituberculous and steroid therapy, the development of bronchial stenosis is usually irreversible and requires airway patency to be restored by either bronchoscopic or surgical interventions. We report the use of balloon dilatation and topical mitomycin-C to successful restore airway patency. ...

To set the foundation for developing a centre for airway reconstruction, we performed a retrospective database review of patients operated at a tertiary-care university hospital. Over the past 3-year period from 2004 onwards, five paediatric cases of airway reconstruction procedures were performed. All cases had a two stages laryngotracheal reconstruction (TSLTR) for laryngotracheal stenosis (L...

S tenosis of the supraglottic larynx and pharynx is an uncommon and difficult condition to treat. The most common etiologies include iatrogenic injury from oropharyngeal and supraglottic surgery, radiation therapy, prolonged intubation, trauma, caustic ingestion, and inflammatory diseases. Presenting symptoms are a function of stenosis severity and can range from dysphagia and dysphonia to pote...

Background Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is often accompanied by a deficit in midline facial development; however, congenital oropharyngeal stenosis in neonates with HPE has not been reported before. We describe a case of a neonate with prenatally diagnosed semilobar HPE accompanied by congenital oropharyngeal stenosis. Case Report The patient was born at 39 weeks of gestation and developed dyspnea s...

Introduction: Neonatal nasal airway obstruction induces various degrees of respiratory distress. The management of this disease, including surgical repair, will depend on the severity and location of the obstruction. We describe here a case of congenital nasal nostril stenosis that required surgical repair for stenting of both nares after coanal atresia repair.   Case Report: A 2 days old femal...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of synchronous airway lesions and esophagitis in children younger than 18 months undergoing adenoidectomy for adenoid hypertrophy and upper airway obstruction. DESIGN Retrospective review spanning 4.5 years. SETTING Tertiary care children's hospital. PATIENTS All children younger than 18 months who underwent adenoidectomy for upper airway obstruction ...

Purpose Evaluation of airway stenosis secondary to head and neck lesions has been performed routinely with CT scan and endoscopy (1). Endoscopy of a stenotic airway can be difficult, and can be associated with compromise of the airway (2). CT virtual endoscopy (CTVE) provides a noninvasive means of evaluating the airways while simultaneously studying the head and neck soft tissues including vas...