Atypical presentation of Kawasaki disease in young infants mimicking a retropharyngeal abscess

Excerpt

Kawasaki disease (KD), also known as acute febrile mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome, is self-limited vasculitis of an unknown etiology which typically affects small- and medium-sized arteries. Due to the non-specific symptoms and lacks of a specific laboratory test, the diagnosis is based on presence of fever at least 5 days concurrently with four of five clinical criteria: nonpurulent bulbar conjunctivitis, changes in mucosa of oropharynx, changes in peripheral extremities, polymorphous exanthema, and cervical lymphadenopathy >1.5 cm. However, only 40% of KD patients present with clinically fulfilled criteria [1]. We reported two infants with KD who initially presented with an atypical retropharyngeal abscess-like lesion that lead to delayed diagnosis and potentially increased risk of cardiac complications and mortality. …