STRIDOR IN CHILDREN AS INDICATION FOR BRONCHOSCOPY. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA OF ONE REFERENCE CENTER.

Stridor as a high pitched respiratory sound produced by irregular airflow in a narrowed airway during inspiration. There is always an anomaly of the airways when stridor is present. Diagnosis of the anomaly depends on bronchoscopist experience to distinguish the anomaly. Data of bronchoscopies on 2017-2023 were evaluated in unique center in UHC Mother Teresa, Tirana. 60 children with stridor were evaluated by flexible bronchoscopy examination. Stridor was classified as either a) acute or persistent, as b) inspiratory, biphasic or expiratory, c)stridor with inspiratory dyspnea or without inspiratory dyspnea. 55 children had persistent stridor, 5 had acute stridor. 45 children (90%) of children with persistent stridor were 1 month to 1 years old. Indication for bronchoscopy was persistent stridor since birth. 55% of them were diagnosed as laryngomalacia or/and tracheomalacia. In children from 1 month to 1 years old 44% children had failure to thrive and 75% had difficulty feeding. 44% of children had various congenital anomalies, 14 children with stenosis of trachea or/and main bronchi’s from vascular anomalies, 1 cyst of the basis tongue, 2 unilateral paralysis of vocal cord, 1 subglottic hemangiomas, 2 trachea esophageal fistula. 5 children had with acute stridor, 3 of them had foreign body in larynx and 1 had supraglottitis, 1 post extubating edema. Stridor was classified as only inspiratory, biphasic, or expiratory Inspiratory stridor was present in 42 children, 5 children with biphasic stridor and 13 children had expiratory stridor. 10 children had stridor and inspiratory dyspnea, 8 of them underwent to tracheostomy. Stridor remains the second indication for flexible bronchoscopy in our country with 32% of all