Anthony Mortelliti | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Deficient tracheal rings.

Deficient cartilaginous rings are an extremely rare intrinsic tracheal defect. To our knowledge, only two cases have previously been reported in the literature. We describe our experience with three patients presenting with this unusual defect causing severe tracheomalacia who were successfully managed with slide-tracheoplasty. With respect to correction of the stenotic tracheal segment, our clinical outcomes were excellent. Dissimilarities in medical history suggest that the origin of deficient tracheal rings can be either congenital or acquired.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed2005

State-dependent laryngomalacia in sleeping children.

Laryngomalacia is a common congenital laryngeal abnormality. Despite its being widely discussed in the literature, the pathophysiology is not clearly understood. Both anatomic and neuromuscular theories have been suggested to explain laryngomalacia. We report 4 cases of laryngomalacia in which the presenting signs occurred during sleep. Awake flexible nasopharyngolaryngoscopy failed to demonstrate supraglottic structure collapse. Only while the patients were breathing spontaneously under general anesthesia was laryngomalacia noted. A proposed algorithm for diagnosis and treatment is included. These 4 cases of state-dependent laryngomalacia support a neuromuscular cause for laryngomalacia.

Child, Preschool↗