Bizarre! What doctors discovered in the throat of a heavy smoker

Bizarre side effect. RThe serious effects of smoking are well known to most people, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes and accelerated skin aging.

But now an extremely new and unexpected risk has been discovered. A seasoned Austrian smoker has developed neck hair as a rare complication of his cigarette addiction.

His case was detailed in American Journal of Case Reports. The unidentified 52-year-old man visited doctors in 2007, about 17 years after he started smoking. He had a hoarse voice, shortness of breath and a chronic cough.

Bizarre case. What doctors discovered in the throat of a heavy smoker

A bronchoscopy revealed inflammation and multiple hairs in the man’s neck in an area that had previously been operated on. The man was diagnosed with endotracheal hair growth or neck hair growth.

As a child, at the age of 10, he almost drowned and was treated with a tracheotomy to stabilize his breathing. The wound was later closed using the skin and cartilage from the ear. Later, when he sought treatment for his cough and shortness of breath, hair growth around the site of this graft was detected.

Doctors were able to remove the hairs by plucking them, a procedure that provided relief but not a permanent solution. The hairs continued to grow, and the patient returned to the hospital annually for 14 years, complaining of the same symptoms.

Typically, the man’s throat had six to nine 5 cm hairs, some passing through the voice box and growing into the mouth. In addition to the removal, the man was treated with antibiotics, the hairs being covered with bacteria.

Endotracheal hair growth is very rare

The hairy situation was only remedied in 2022, when the man stopped smoking and doctors were able to perform endoscopic coagulation with argon plasma – burning the root from which the hair was growing. A second coagulation, the following year, completely eliminated the regrowth of the hairs.

Endotracheal hair growth is extremely rare. In their report, the doctors noted that it was only the second case of its kind that they had seen. Due to this rarity, the exact cause of the hairy condition is debated.

“These findings may support our hypothesis that smoking habits in the presented case could have induced and stimulated endotracheal hair growth,” the doctors wrote. “Of course, this assumption cannot be proven due to the rarity of such cases.”

In this case, the treatment team believes that the condition was triggered by the man’s smoking. Smoking incites inflammation of the neck tissue, which can cause stem cells to turn into hair follicles, allowing hair to grow.