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Laryngolith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2009

A H Hegab*
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology, Head/Neck and Skull Base Surgery, Maadi Armed Forces Hospital, Cairo, Egypt
*
Address for Correspondence: Dr Amr H Hegab, Head, Department of Otolaryngology, Head/Neck and Skull Base Surgery, Maadi Armed Forces Hospital, Cairo, Egypt Fax: +20 2 25256324 E-mail: amr@hegab@hotmail.com

Abstract

Objective:

To report an extremely rare and interesting case of a woman who developed a laryngeal stone.

Case report:

A 44-year-old woman was referred to our ENT clinic complaining of dyspnoea and stridor. She had been treated for chest problems for approximately 30 years. On examination, she had a large, spiky, subglottic lesion compromising the airway. A laryngeal computed tomography scan and histopathological and biochemical examination showed the lesion to be a calcium phosphate stone. Review of the literature from the past 50 years, using several search engines, revealed no similar cases.

Conclusion:

To the author's knowledge, this is a unique case of a stone that developed in the subglottis. This rare entity was the cause of long-standing chest problems unresponsive to medical treatment. The patient recovered completely from all her symptoms after removal of the laryngolith.

Keywords

Type
Online Only Clinical Records
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 2009

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