Tracheitis
inflammation of the trachea
Tracheitis is an inflammation of the trachea.
Although the trachea is usually considered part of the lower respiratory tract, in ICD-10 tracheitis is classified under "acute upper respiratory infections".
Symptoms
Increasing deep or barking croup cough following a recent upper respiratory infection
Crowing sound when inhaling (inspiratory stridor)
'Scratchy' feeling in the throat
Chest pain
Fever
Ear ache
Headache
Dizziness (light headed)
Labored breathing
Causes
Bacterial tracheitis is a bacterial infection of the trachea and is capable of producing airway obstruction.
One of the most common causes is Staphylococcus aureus and often follows a recent viral upper respiratory infection. Bacterial tracheitis is a rare complication of influenza infection. It is the most serious in young children, possibly because of the relatively small size of the trachea that gets easily blocked by swelling. The most frequent sign is the rapid development of stridor. It is occasionally confused with croup.
If it is inflamed, a condition known as tracheitis can occur. In this condition there can be inflammation of the linings of the trachea.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Tracheitis” as inflammation of the trachea. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as inflammation of the trachea. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q946278. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tracheitis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.