An unusual case of stridor due to osteophytes of the cervical spine: (Forestier's disease).

Stridor is a noisy breathing caused by compromised airway in the larynx and trachea. The causes can either be due to intrinsic or extrinsic compression. Stridor resulting from extrinsic compression due to anterior cervical osteophytes is rare. We report an unusual case of acute stridor due to an osteophytic mass in the cervical vertebrae resulting in a mechanical upper airway obstruction. The underlying pathology was Forestier's disease or diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH). Stridor is a rare manifestation of DISH and it certainly represents the most life-threatening one. Only a few cases have been reported in the English literature and are mainly secondary to impaired function of the vocal folds, or postcricoid ulceration and oedema. We present such a case, in that stridor was the result of direct airway obstruction by the osteophytic mass and an emergency tracheostomy had to be performed to establish an airway.