Useful in acute upper airway obstruction in children

doi:10.1136/bmj.39381.484873.BE

BMJ 2007;335:899-900 (3 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.39381.484873.BE

Letters

Value of video clips

Useful in acute upper airway obstruction in children

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Ashworth argues that mobile phone video footage is useful whentreating sick children.¹ We know of two recent cases in whichsuch video footage provided by parents was valuable in the diagnosisand treatment of upper airway obstruction.

A previously healthy 2.5 year old boy was reported by his parentsto have severe respiratory distress at night, which completelyresolved during the day. He was seen several times by a familydoctor and ear, nose, and throat specialist. No diagnosis wasmade as he seemed well. Finally, his parents presented a videorecording showing him in severe respiratory distress while asleep(figure). Direct laryngoscopy and bronchoscopy were then carriedout under general anaesthesia. He needed urgent adenotonsillectomyand made an uneventful recovery with complete resolution ofhis symptoms.

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The second patient was a 13 year old girl with cystic fibrosiswho was due to have a scheduled bronchoscopy. She . . . [Full text of this article]

Graham A M Wilson, consultant paediatric anaesthetist¹, Thomas Engelhardt, consultant paediatric anaesthetist¹, Bruno Marciniak, staff anaesthetist²

¹ Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, Aberdeen AB25 2ZN, ² Clinique d'Anesthesie Reanimation de l'Hopital Jeanne de Flandre, CHRU Lille, 59037 Lille Cedex, France

graham.wilson@nhs.net