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77th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

24.05. - 28.05.2006, Mannheim

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Thoracic aortic aneurysm as a cause for paralysis of N. recurrens - a case report

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author Ulrike Pester - Department for ENT, Klinikum Frankfurt (Oder) GmbH, Frankfurt (Oder), Deutschland
  • Thomas Günzel - Department for ENT, Klinikum Frankfurt (Oder) GmbH, Frankfurt (Oder), Deutschland

German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 77th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Mannheim, 24.-28.05.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. Doc06hno055

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/hno2006/06hno055.shtml

Published: September 7, 2006

© 2006 Pester et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: There are many causes for a one sided or bilateral vocal cord paralysis due to a damage of the N. recurrens. Rarely the reason for paralysis of this nerve is a thoracic aortic aneurysm. The frequency of thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysms is 1:300000. Causes are arteriosclerosis, injuries, inflammation or aneurysm as a part of syndroms.

Methods: We present a case report including elucidation of possible reasons and diagnostic procedures in case of paralysis of N. recurrens.

Results: Our case report is about an 90 years old patient with a left sided vocal cord nerve paralysis because of an aneurysm of the aortic arch.

Discussion: A possible reason for a paralysis of the N. recurrens is a aortic aneurysm. Indication for an operation is given in case of asymptomatic thoracic (> 6 cm) and abdominal (> 5 cm) aneurysms and in cases of symptomatic aneurysms and complications. In our case report there was no possibility for surgical therapy because of the age and the other illnesses of the patient.