Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Laryngeal tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most common complications of pulmonary tuberculosis, which increased for various reasons such as more prevalence of immune system suppression diseases, increasing the survival of the elderly, immigrants from high-risk areas and the appearance of atypical or resistant organisms over the past two decades, and its clinical pattern changed compared to the past. In contrast to the past that patients complained about dyspnea, coughing and other symptoms, today, the main complaints of these patients are hoarseness and Odynophagia. In reality, the prevalence of laryngeal TB without pulmonary manifestation was increased these days. The purpose of this study was to evaluate these symptoms in laryngeal TB.
Case Presentation: In this case report study, we examined a 77-year-old man who was admitted to the otorhinolaryngology department of Shafa hospital of Kerman (an academic hospital of Kerman University of Medical Sciences), Iran in April 2019 due to hoarseness since 6 months before admission and the results of evaluation confirmed the presence of laryngeal tuberculosis in this patient. The patient treated with Anti-TB drugs (Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrizinamide, and Ethambutol) according to standard protocol and responded appropriately to this medication regimen.
Conclusion: Although laryngeal tuberculosis is a rare disease, it still occurs. Therefore, by increasing the incidence of tuberculosis, changes in the clinical pattern and its spreading mechanism, physicians should always be aware of the unusual clinical features of laryngeal tuberculosis and the possibility of developing it for early diagnosis and treatment. It should be considered as a differential diagnosis in all laryngeal diseases to prevent the complications of the disease and decrease the risk of transferring it to other people.