A difficult airway in a child with Kaposi's Sarcoma of the epiglottis

Summary The successful management of a difficult airway, whether anticipated or not, necessitates clinical expertise, adequate human resources, and appropriate equipment. The absence of any these key elements potentially exposes the patient to serious harm or even death. The emotion generated when dealing with such an emergency is often exacerbated in a paediatric patient. We present the case of a child with a difficult airway who presented to a low resource healthcare facility in rural South Africa. There was no available past medical history, the presenting diagnosis was unclear and there was a lack of specialist equipment. Despite these challenges anaesthetic management was successful. The unusual diagnosis of epiglottal Kaposi's sarcoma was made retrospectively at a tertiary centre.