Epiglottitis is a medical emergency that requires immediate treatment and admission to the nearest hospital.
The first priority in treating cases of epiglottitis is to ensure that your child is able to breathe. This is known as securing the airways.
Securing the airways
Your care team will initially try to improve your child's breathing by using an oxygen mask that delivers highly concentrated oxygen to the lungs. If this does not work, a tube will be placed in the mouth and will be pushed down past the epiglottis and into the windpipe. The tube will be connected to an oxygen supply.
If the situation is critical and there is an urgent need to secure the airways, a needle may be used to puncture an area of skin in the windpipe. This procedure is called a tracheostomy and allows oxygen to enter the lungs while bypassing the epiglottis.
After your child's airways have been secured and they are able to breathe unrestricted, a more comfortable and convenient way of assisting their breathing may be found. This is usually achieved by threading a tube through the nose and into the windpipe.
Treating the infection
Once your child is able to breathe unrestricted the source of the infection will be treated. The infection will be treated with injections of broad spectrum antibiotics.
Broad spectrum antibiotics are antibiotics that are designed to treat a wide range of different bacterial infections. Once the type of infection has been identified, a more specific type of antibiotic may be used.
Most people will need to take a seven- to ten-day course of antibiotics. As the symptoms improve, your child may be given antibiotic tablets, capsules or liquids (oral antibiotics) rather than injections (intravenous antibiotics).
