Herpes Simplex Virus laryngitis may present with stridor in kids, finds study

Researchers conducted a Systematic Reviews to identify articles relating to HSV laryngitis from MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Database. They extracted patient demographics, presenting signs and symptoms, treatment and clinical course from the selected manuscripts. They included 31 studies on HSV laryngitis that identified 36 patients (17 pediatric, 19 adults).

Key findings of the study were:

• Among the pediatric population, they noted that stridor was more common at presentation when compared with the adult population.

• They also noted that adults were more commonly presented with dysphagia and dysphonia.

• They found that adult patients were more likely to undergo tracheotomy than pediatric patients.

• The mean length of hospital stay was 21 days for children and 16 for adults respectively.

The authors concluded, "HSV laryngitis has a unique presentation in pediatrics and adults, but is nonspecific in both populations leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment. HSV laryngitis is associated with significant morbidity including multi-week hospital stay and risk for needing tracheostomy in both adults and pediatric population which demonstrates the need for clinical awareness of this complication of HSV infection".

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijporl.2020.110596