TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Upper Airway Emergencies A1 - Roy, Linnea Wittick A2 - Tenenbein, Milton A2 - Macias, Charles G. A2 - Sharieff, Ghazala Q. A2 - Yamamoto, Loren G. A2 - Schafermeyer, Robert PY - 2019 T2 - Strange and Schafermeyer's Pediatric Emergency Medicine, 5e AB - The most common cause of acute upper airway obstruction is croup. Other causes include epiglottitis, foreign-body obstruction, peritonsillar abscess, bacterial tracheitis, and retropharyngeal abscess.Upper airway obstruction may originate anywhere in the upper airway from anterior nares to subglottic region.The clinician must maintain an awareness of the unique anatomic and physiologic characteristics of the respiratory tract in the growing infant and child in order to diagnose and manage upper airway emergencies.Identifying the source for the respiratory distress, particularly differentiating between upper and lower airway pathologies, is a critical early step of the evaluation and management of these patients.Key signs differentiating between upper and lower obstructive processes are wheezes and respiratory rate. Wheezes indicate lower airway obstruction and a very rapid respiratory rate; >40 breaths per minute indicate that the respiratory distress is not due to an upper airway obstructive pathology. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1155296494 ER -