Tracheomalacia

Definition:

A congenital weakness and floppiness of the walls of the trachea (main airway).

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

Tracheomalacia occurs when the cartilage in the trachea fails to develop or mature in a timely manner, resulting in the wall of the trachea being floppy rather than relatively rigid. Children with tracheomalacia have noisy breathing (high-pitched sounds when breathing, called stridor, and rattling noisy breaths) that becomes even worse if they develop upper respiratory infections.

Tracheomalacia is generally simplify, and as the tracheal cartilage grows the noisy respirations and breathing difficulties cease.