Epidemiological aspects of congenital stridor

Abstract The objective of the present work was to study epidemiology of congenital stridor as a leading symptom of laryngeal malformation. The continuous sampling method was employed to perform the retrospective analysis of the growth charts of the patients attending three children's polyclinics in Moscow (9.625 patients born between 2005 and 2009). In addition, the medical histories of 4.623 newborn and breast-fed babies under the age of 1 year admitted to the Department of Newborn and Neonatal Pathology, Saint Vladimir City Children's Clinical Hospital, and 347 patients of the Department of Reconstructive Laryngeal Surgery were analysed. The children with the history of tracheal intubation in the preceding period were excluded from the study. The frequency of congenital stridor annually diagnosed in the aforementioned polyclinics varied from 0.17 to 5.8% compared with 1.5% in the general population. It was 2.21 to 3.14% (mean 2.47%) among the children treated at the Clinical Hospital. In the children under the age of 1 year, congenital malformations accounted for 90.8% of all laryngeal diseases. The principal cause of stridor was shown to be laryngomalacia. This pathology was diagnosed in 91.9% of the cases included in this study. In 11.2% of the patients, this condition occurred in combination with other congenital pathologies. It is concluded that the diagnosis of congenital stridor is an indication for laryngeal endoscopy regardless of the children's age starting from the first day of life. Meeting this recommendation allows the cause of stridor to be established and the treatment strategy to be developed on an individual basis.