Acute epiglottitis in children.

Hemophilus influenzae type B (30 cases), untyped (two cases), and type A (one case), and H parainfluenzae (one case) were recovered in blood cultures from 44 cultures of 53 children with acute epiglottitis. These patients were managed by observation, tracheotomy, or intubation, with intubation being the most satisfactory. Both ampicillin and chloramphenicol have been employed recently because of the emergence of ampicillin resistance, which was 18.7% of all cases in 1977.