Differentiating stridor in children at triage: it's not always croup.

摘要

Two children arrive almost simultaneously in the emergency department, both with stridor and difficulty breathing. Patient A is a 5-year old who arrives with inspiratory stridor, a barking cough, a runny nose, bilateral intercostals, retractions, and a fever. Patient B is a 3-year-old boy who has severe difficulty breathing when he arrives. He has rapid respirations, biphasic stridor, a barking cough, and bilateral costal retractions.Currently only one bed is open in the emergency department. Which child goes first? To make the decision, the emergency nurse must be familiar with certain childhood airway obstruction presentations.