Idiopathic Subglottic Stenosis Evaluation & Management

[Dr. Stephen Schoeff]
The idiopathic patients tend to get shuffled around quite a bit. They often are otherwise pretty healthy. They're showing up with some mild stridor, potentially, but often not even stridor at their first presentation to someone where they're presenting, say, to their primary care provider with increasing mucus in the throat, which we all know is a super common complaint, or increased cough, maybe slightly shorter breath, but pretty gradual, pretty slow onset. That's part of what makes it such a challenging condition is that they oftentimes get managed with some OTC meds, or maybe acid reflux meds, and albuterol inhaler and they're not getting better. Oftentimes, they'll end up actually getting sent over to allergy or pulmonology first. Then finally, the stridor becomes more noticeable. That's oftentimes when they may either end up in an urgent care or emergency room setting or in the ENT clinic.