Acute laryngotracheobronchitis causing dyspnea in infants may occur in the course of an acute infection of the upper respiratory tract, or be secondary to the presence of a foreign body in the trachea or bronchi. As a rule, the history gives sufficient evidence as to which factor is the cause, but occasionally cases are seen in which the differentiation is not easily made. In the past year I have seen three cases in which the history gave no clue or was misleading.
Most papers on the subject of this disease refer to it as a rare condition, and state that the references in the literature are few. Gittins,1 however, has been able to find thirty-one references to this disease. Included in this list is the article by Baum,2 which is most complete.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONDITION
Etiology.—Acute laryngotracheobronchitis is, as a general rule, preceded by