In a bizarre medical case, a 52-year-old man from Austria was found to have developed the rare condition of endotracheal hair growth after smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for 30 years.
In this weird medical condition, hair started growing inside the man's throat.
Later, the opening was closed using a skin and cartilage graft from his ear, and this area subsequently became the site of hair growth.
According to the doctors, the hair growth started due to his habit of smoking cigarettes.
Since then, the man has not reported any hair growth.
In a bizarre medical case, a 52-year-old man from Austria was found to have developed the rare condition of endotracheal hair growth after smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for 30 years.
In this weird medical condition, hair started growing inside the man's throat. The problem deteriorated when he got his hair plucked out for 14 years from his throat because it kept growing due to his smoking habit.
Revisiting the rare medical case
According to a report published in the American Journal of Case Reports, the patient started visiting the doctors in 2007 and complained facing difficulty in breathing. He also complained about a chronic cough and hoarse voice.
The man informed the doctors that he once coughed out a 5 cm long hair and said that he had been smoking cigarettes since 1990. He further said that he started developing the symptoms in 2006.
A bronchoscopy was performed on the man by the doctors and they found various hair growing from an area in his throat where he had earlier undergone surgery after facing a near-drowning incident in his childhood.
He had also undergone a tracheotomy at the age of 10 in which his trachea was cut open to allow an air tube to be placed for making oxygen reach his lungs.
Later, the opening was closed using a skin and cartilage graft from his ear, and this area subsequently became the site of hair growth.
Watch: Peru to stop labeling transgenders at mentally ill after facing backlash Then, the doctors performed surgery on the man and removed six to nine 2-inch long hair, however, it grew back. The man continued to visit the hospital every year for 14 years to get the hair plucked out.
According to the doctors, the hair growth started due to his habit of smoking cigarettes. The man's condition improved after he quit smoking in 2022 and an endoscopic argon plasma coagulation was performed by the doctors which included burning the hair cells.
A year after the procedure was conducted, two hairs were removed by the doctors from his throat and they performed another coagulation. Since then, the man has not reported any hair growth.
