Rare laryngotracheobronchial anomalies in children: a retrospective study of 249 bronchoscopic cases in a single center

Background: Laryngotracheobronchial anomalies in children are rare, and their clinical manifestations are diverse. In this study, we report the clinical aspects and prevalence rates of tracheal bronchus (TB) and congenital subglottic stenosis (CSS) in a select group of patients at our institution and briefly review and discuss the literature to draw attention to these rare anomalies. Case series: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 249 children for whom senior surgeons performed rigid bronchoscopy for suspected or confirmed food choking or foreign body aspiration in children between August 2013 and January 2020. Bronchoscopic findings and demographics of the patients with laryngotracheobronchial anomalies were documented. Four among the 249 patients (1.6 %) had right-sided TB (two males aged 24 and 42 months and two females aged 14 and 60 months), while three (1.2 %) had grade 1 CSS (one male aged eight months and two females aged 11 and 13 months). There was no previous history of endotracheal intubation for any subglottic stenosis (SS), though all three patients were admitted with sudden onset of respiratory difficulty. One of the TB cases had congenital cardiac anomalies, and two were symptomatic before their admission to the emergency department. Conclusions: The prevalence of CSS and TB in the healthy population is low. Physicians dealing with the pediatric airways should consider such anomalies for prompt diagnosis, proper instrumentation, management, and follow-up of these cases. Our data also correlate with previous data, indicating that these anomalies' prevalence rates have not increased during the last few decades.