Endoscopic treatment of subglottic stenosis in children

Introduction. Subglottic stenosis is one of the most common causes of upper airway obstruction. The incidence of post-intubation stenosis ranges from 0.9% to 3% (Rodríguez H. et al.), or from 0.2% to 20% (Haranal M.Y. et al.). Currently, there is no consensus on the choice of surgical tactics due to a large number of modalities for surgical restoration of the laryngeal lumen.

Material and methods. 44 patients with postintubation laryngeal stenosis were treated in the surgical thoracic department of the National Medical Research Center of Children’s Health subordinate to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation during 2019-2021. The average age of patients in this group was 4 years 8 months ± 3 years 8 months. Endoscopic treatment was done to 24 patients (54.5%). Laryngoscopy, fibrobronchoscopy, multispiral computed tomography and, if necessary, barium esophagogram were done for additional diagnostics.

Results. The average number of endoscopic procedures per patient was 2.9 ± 1.5 (range from 1 to 7). Good results were seen in 20 patients (83.3%).

Conclusions. Endoscopic techniques are alternative options to open reconstructive surgery. These techniques give good results in treating stenoses in the subglottic space and give a good chance to avoid tracheostomy in a certain group of patients, which, according to the results of our study, was as large as 79.1%.