Doctors report a strange complication of smoking: Hairs have started growing in the throat of a man who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for decades.
- A 52-year-old man had hair growing in his throat for years.
- This is a rare complication of tracheal restructuring by autograft.
- According to doctors, it could be caused by the patient’s smoking.
The “cat in the throat” that led a 52-year-old Austrian man to seek medical attention several times was actually… hair growing in his windpipe. It’s a rare complication stemming from his cigarette addiction, doctors say.
His case was the subject of an article in the scientific journal American Journal of Case Report from June 18, 2024.
Tobacco and autograft: 6 to 9 hairs of 5 cm in the throat
The Austrian, whose identity has not been revealed, first consulted doctors in 2007 for chronic hoarseness and cough, as well as nighttime breathing difficulties and annoying snoring. He also told professionals that he had coughed up a 5 cm long hair. He also admitted that he smoked and that his consumption was up to a pack a day.
Faced with these symptoms, the medical team decided to examine his airways with a small camera. It revealed the presence of significant inflammation and the presence of several hairs. In trying to understand why these hairs were growing in his throat, the doctors learned that the patient had undergone a tracheotomy at age 10, after nearly drowning. His doctors at the time had closed the wound using an autograft of skin and cartilage taken from his ear.
To put an end to the problems that the man – then aged 35 – was experiencing, health professionals simply plucked out the hairs present and prescribed an anti-inflammatory and antibiotic treatment.
“However, hair growth in the transplant area persisted,” the doctors state in their article. The patient continued to return to the hospital every year with the same symptoms for 17 years. On several occasions, the doctors removed between “6 to 9 endotracheal hairs with a maximum length of 5 cm”.
“The hairs grew in a proximal direction, sometimes extending beyond the vocal cords, reaching the oral cavity.”the authors indicate.
This recurring disorder ended in 2022 after the use of argon plasma coagulation, a technique that involves burning the hair cells, and “after quitting smoking”.
Hair in the throat: tobacco could be the cause
Endotracheal hair growth is a very rare complication of tracheal autograft reconstruction. Why did this patient experience so many “relapses”? Doctors believe the explanation lies in the patient’s smoking.
“Cigarette smoke has the ability to alter signaling pathways in respiratory epithelial cells that are simultaneously linked to hair follicle proliferation. Therefore, smoking cessation is likely to be crucial in such cases of patients receiving skin/cartilage grafts in the respiratory system.”explain the doctors.
