Kimura disease of the epiglottis - An unusual cause of upper airway obstruction

Kimura disease is a rare chronic inflammatory condition of unknown etiology, with a predilection in the head and neck region. Involvement of the epiglottis can cause upper airway obstruction but fortunately this is exceedingly rare. We report a 12-year-old boy who was incidentally found to have Kimura disease involvement of the epiglottis obstructing 80% of the airway in the course of our investigations for his cervical lymphadenopathy. Surprisingly, patient was asymptomatic despite the relative large size of the lesion. To our knowledge this is the youngest patient reported to date. Proposed mechanism for his symptoms and management of the case is discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.