Adult acute epiglottitis

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Tenderness over the hyoid bone can indicate epiglottitis in adults” (J Am Board Fam Med. 2006 Sep-Oct;19(5):517-20). Author is Ehara H, from the Ehara Clinic, Tokyo, Japan. Adult acute epiglottitis is a rare but life-threatening disease caused by obstruction of the airway. The symptoms and signs of this disease may be nonspecific without apparent airway compromise. The author encountered 3 consecutive cases of adult patients with this disease in a single 5-month period in one physician’s office. In all cases, physical examination revealed tenderness of the anterior neck over the hyoid bone. These observations assisted the authors in identifying this rare disease quickly. They suggest that tenderness over the hyoid bone should raise suspicion of adult acute epiglottitis. To access the abstract of the article, click here.