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83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

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

16.05. - 20.05.2012, Mainz

Prolapse of the laryngeal ventricle: A case report

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Tanja Hildenbrand - HNO-Uniklinik Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
  • author Erwin Löhle - Sektion Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie, HNO-Uniklinik Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
  • author Rainer Beck - Sektion Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie, HNO-Uniklinik Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Mainz, 16.-20.05.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12hno49

doi: 10.3205/12hno49, urn:nbn:de:0183-12hno499

Published: July 23, 2012

© 2012 Hildenbrand 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

Text

Introduction: There are numerous differential diagnoses of benign lesions of the larynx. If they protrude into the laryngeal lumen they can cause hoarseness, cough, dyspnoea and stridor.

A rare differential diagnosis of a benign lesion of the larynx is the prolapse of the laryngeal ventricle. Due to chronic inflammatory changes with consecutive proliferation, varying degrees of metaplasia, edema, glandular atrophy and fatty infiltration of the mucosa and submucosa there is an increase in mass of the periventricular tissue, the mucosa of the ventricle is pushed out of the ventricle and into the airway. Therefore the term prolapse of the ventricle is misleading, as it is not a prolapse in the sense of a falling down of an organ or part.

Case report: A 38 yo female patient presented to our department for phoniatrics with a 10 days history of hoarseness. She is working as a teacher with a history of chronic voice abuse. Assuming acute laryngitis, she was treated with a course of antibiotics by her local ENT practitioner. The hoarseness didn’t improve. Stroboscopy showed a bilateral protrusion between the true and false vocal folds. No restriction of movement was found, stroboscoby showed a normal mucosal wave pattern with regular amplitudes and slight asynchronicity. Due to her altered voice, the protrusions were excised. Histopathology showed respiratory mucosa with seromucinous glands and fatty infiltration.

Conclusion: Protrusion of the laryngeal ventricle is a rare differential diagnosis of a benign lesion of the larynx. Microsurgical excision and histopathological examination is to be considered in cases of reduced voice quality or for the exclusion of malignancy.


References

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Walsh-Waring GP. Prolapse of the laryngeal ventricle. (Two cases of prolapse of the laryngeal ventricle occuring in a family with a four generation history of hoarse voice). J Laryngol Otol. 1967 Apr;81(4):449-54.