Sudden Unexpected Death Due To Glottic Oedema ? Report of Two Cases

The space between the vocal cords and the mucosa covering them is the glottis. Glottic oedema can be caused by various reasons like hypersensitivity, inflammation, infection or by mechanical obstruction. Glottic oedema causes obstruction of air passages resulting in asphyxia and causes sudden unexpected death. Glottic oedema due to hypersensitivity or inhalation of smoke in cases of burn death and endotracheal intubations will come across during autopsies. Glottic oedema by local infection resulting in death is rare. At Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram we had two such cases of death due to glottic oedema. In these cases glottic oedema resulted from local infection at different sites.