Hans Edmund Eckel, MD, Jorgen Koebke, PhD, Christian Sittel, MD

The morphologic development of the human larynx during the first years of life is poorly understood to date. This study used plastinated whole organ serial sections to determine the growth and structure of the infant larynx. The larynges of 43 children I to 60 months of age were plastinated. Whole organ serial sections were obtained by cutting the resulting specimen with a diamond band saw. The slices were then submitted to computer- assisted morphometric investigation. We found that the laryngeal airway as determined by the subglottic space exponentially increases in size during the first 2 years of life. Further growth follows a linear mode. The relative proportion of the mucosal lining decreases likewise. In contrast to adults, and comparable to most mammals, the cartilaginous glottis accounts for 60% to 75 % of the vocal folds' length. No sexual dimorphism of the larynx exists during childhood. This study supplies detailed morphometric data on the growth and structure of the human larynx during the first years of life. It is the first to use plastinated whole organ serial sections for the study of pediatric laryngeal morphology. Therefore, this study provides quantitative anatomic data of clinical interest that have not been available to date.