Tracheocele: an unusual cause of dysphonia.

EDUCATIONAL

OBJECTIVES

Describe the clinical presentation and management of tracheoceles.

STUDY

DESIGN

Retrospective case review and review of the medical literature.

RESULTS

A 56 year old female patient presented with progressive dysphonia and history of benign thyroid nodules. Flexible laryngoscopy revealed a severely paretic right true vocal cord. Computed tomography revealed a right sided air filled sac in the tracheoesophageal groove suspicious for causing compression of the right recurrent laryngeal nerve. The patient underwent an elective right hemithyroidectomy and resection of the air filled sac. Post operative pathology of the air filled sax was consistent with a tracheocele. A laryngoscopy performed 6 months postoperatively demonstrated recovery of right cord function.

CONCLUSIONS

Tracheoceles are an uncommon entity first described in 1846 by Rokitansky (1) with only a paucity of case reports in the literature describing the surgical management and treatment of this disease. Herein, we report a patient who presented with dysphonia from a tracheocele in the right tracheoesophageal groove who subsequently underwent surgical resection ultimately improving vocal cord function.