Pharyngitis
To view the entire topic, please log in or purchase a subscription.
Emergency Central is a collection of disease, drug, and test information including 5-Minute Emergency Medicine Consult, Davis’s Drug, McGraw-Hill Medical’s Diagnosaurus®, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, and MEDLINE Journals created for emergency medicine professionals. Explore these free sample topics:
-- The first section of this topic is shown below --
Basics
Description
- Inflammation/infection of the pharynx
- Third most common complaint for physician visits
- 30 million cases diagnosed annually
- Group A β-hemolytic Streptococcus (GAS):
- Streptococcus pyogenes
- Unusual in children <3 yr old
- Cause of 20–30% of childhood pharyngitis
- Bimodal incidence, highest in ages 5–7 and 12–13 yr
- Cause of 5–15% of adult pharyngitis
- Peak months: January–May; also at the start of the school year
Etiology
- Viral (most common infectious cause [60–80%]):
- Rhinovirus (20%)
- Coronavirus (>5%)
- Adenovirus (5%)
- Herpes simplex virus (4%)
- Parainfluenza virus (2%)
- Influenza virus (2%)
- Coxsackievirus (<1%)
- Epstein–Barr virus (<1%)
- Acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- Bacterial:
- GAS (S. pyogenes [5–30%])
- Fusobacterium necrophorum (10%)
- Group C & G β-hemolytic Streptococcus (5%)
- Neisseria gonorrhea (<1%)
- Corynebacterium diphtheriae (<1%)
- Arcanobacterium haemolyticum (<1%)
- Chlamydia pneumoniae
- Mycoplasma pneumoniae (<1%)
- Syphilis
- Tuberculosis
- Fungal:
- Candida (thrush)
- Chemical burns
- Foreign bodies
- Inhalants
- Postnasal drip
- Malignancy
- GERD
-- To view the remaining sections of this topic, please log in or purchase a subscription --
Basics
Description
- Inflammation/infection of the pharynx
- Third most common complaint for physician visits
- 30 million cases diagnosed annually
- Group A β-hemolytic Streptococcus (GAS):
- Streptococcus pyogenes
- Unusual in children <3 yr old
- Cause of 20–30% of childhood pharyngitis
- Bimodal incidence, highest in ages 5–7 and 12–13 yr
- Cause of 5–15% of adult pharyngitis
- Peak months: January–May; also at the start of the school year
Etiology
- Viral (most common infectious cause [60–80%]):
- Rhinovirus (20%)
- Coronavirus (>5%)
- Adenovirus (5%)
- Herpes simplex virus (4%)
- Parainfluenza virus (2%)
- Influenza virus (2%)
- Coxsackievirus (<1%)
- Epstein–Barr virus (<1%)
- Acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- Bacterial:
- GAS (S. pyogenes [5–30%])
- Fusobacterium necrophorum (10%)
- Group C & G β-hemolytic Streptococcus (5%)
- Neisseria gonorrhea (<1%)
- Corynebacterium diphtheriae (<1%)
- Arcanobacterium haemolyticum (<1%)
- Chlamydia pneumoniae
- Mycoplasma pneumoniae (<1%)
- Syphilis
- Tuberculosis
- Fungal:
- Candida (thrush)
- Chemical burns
- Foreign bodies
- Inhalants
- Postnasal drip
- Malignancy
- GERD
There's more to see -- the rest of this topic is available only to subscribers.