Otolaryngology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Laryngomalacia is the most common cause of infant stridor and is categorized based on symptom presentation as mild, moderate or severe. In those with mild disease, symptoms usually resolve by 18 months of age. Up to 40% of infants will have feeding complications that improve with acid suppression treatment and management of reflux disease. Up to 20% will have severe obstruction and require surgical intervention. Others will have symptoms that persist or present beyond infancy. These variants of laryngomalacia include persistent, late onset, neurologic variant and exercise induced laryngomalacia. This presentation will review our clinical and research experience with over 500 patients to review the spectrum of clinical presentation and how medical co-morbidities predict disease severity and influence outcomes from treatment and management strategies. Representative clinical cases will be presented. Surgical techniques that include supraglottoplasty and epiglottopexy will be presented. Data supporting abnormal sensorimotor integration between peripheral and central vagal nerve function in disease etiology will be discussed.

Biography

Dana M Thompson is the Division Head of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children?s Hospital of Chicago where she holds the The Lauren D. Holinger Chair in Pediatric Otolaryngology. She is alsoa Professor of Otolaryngology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the Mayo Clinic, followed by a research year and apprenticeship in laryngology and esophageal disorders. She completed her second fellowship in Pediatric Otolaryngology at Cincinnati Children?s Hospital under the direction of Dr. Robin Cotton. She has held previous appointments on the faculty at the Mayo Clinic and Cincinnati Children?s Hospital. She has a unique hybrid of expertise in the surgical treatment and management of airway, voice, and swallowing disorders for infants, children, and adults and is the Director of the Multidisciplinary Aerodigestive Program at Lurie Children?s Hospital. Her other clinical interests include surgical management of supraglottic collapse, subglottic stenosis and tracheal stenosis, Infant Apnea, Airway and Extraesophageal Manifestations of GERD, Aerodigestive Manifestations of Eosinophilic Esophagitis, Oropharyngeal Swallowing, Airway Protection, Neurolaryngology, and Laryngomalacia. She was the 2006 recipient of the Harris Mosher Award for excellence in clinical research by the American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society (TRIO) for her work on Laryngomalacia.