During the recent pandemic of influenza I had an opportunity to study the laryngeal and tracheobronchial pictures in influenza patients in hospital and private practice. Some of them were supposed to be suffering from diphtheritic laryngeal stenosis, until direct laryngoscopy and bronchoscopy revealed the true nature of their respiratory difficulty.
For some time it has been my routine to make direct laryngeal and bronchoscopic examinations on patients suffering from croup admitted to the Willard Parker Hospital to ascertain the cause of the stenosis. In a number of cases examined during the past year, we were surprised to see that there was no diphtheritic membrane present. At times the larynx was fiery red, and the ventricular bands and vocal cords were edematous and stippled with whitish points on a deep red background. In these cases the edema was supraglottic and interfered with inspiration. In other cases the voice was not lost