What is epiglottitis?
Your epiglottis is a flap of tissue in your throat below your tongue. It helps keep food from going down your windpipe when you swallow. If your epiglottis swells up, it can block your windpipe so you can’t breathe.
Epiglottitis is a bacterial infection of your epiglottis.
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The most common symptoms of epiglottitis are severe sore throat and noisy, hard breathing
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Epiglottitis is life-threatening, because you won't be able to breathe if your windpipe gets blocked
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Epiglottitis is especially dangerous in children because they have small windpipes that can get blocked quickly
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Doctors treat epiglottitis with antibiotics and usually put a breathing tube in the windpipe to keep it from swelling shut
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To prevent epiglottitis, get your child the Hib vaccine—doctors give it to children as part of their routine shots
Children and adults who may have epiglottitis should go to the hospital emergency department right away.
What causes epiglottitis?
What are the symptoms of epiglottitis?
Symptoms of epiglottitis start quickly, especially in children. A child's throat can close up within a few hours of symptoms starting.
Epiglottis is often a life-threatening emergency, so take any child or adult with symptoms to a hospital emergency department.
Children may have:
In adults, symptoms are similar to those of children, but usually take more than 24 hours to develop. Epiglottitis can block an adult's airway, but blockage is less common than in children.
