A 52-year-old Austrian man who smoked a pack of cigarettes daily for years developed an extremely rare condition – hair growing inside his throat. This unusual situation, reported in the American Journal of Case Reports, shows the unexpected and sometimes serious complications that long-term smoking can cause.
The unnamed man, a heavy smoker, first saw a doctor in 2007 because of a hoarse voice, trouble breathing, and a cough that wouldn't go away. During an examination with a bronchoscope, doctors found inflammation and surprisingly, several hairs growing in his throat, especially in an area that had surgery after a near-drowning incident when he was a child.
At the age of 10, the man had undergone a tracheotomy, a procedure that created an opening in his windpipe. This opening was stabilized using a skin and cartilage graft taken from his ear. This grafted area, unexpectedly, became the unlikely spot where hair started growing.
Doctors diagnosed the man with endotracheal hair growth, an incredibly uncommon condition that had only been documented in one other case before. These hairs, usually numbering six to nine and reaching about 2 inches long, grew through his voice box and even into his mouth. This required him to visit the hospital every year for 14 years to have them removed.
Although temporarily relieved by pulling out the hairs and using antibiotics to treat infected follicles, the hair growth kept coming back.
In 2022, things finally started looking up for the man. He made a major decision and quit smoking! This positive change allowed doctors to perform a new procedure called endoscopic argon plasma coagulation. This technique uses targeted energy to burn the very root of the hair growth, preventing future regrowth.
