Vol.102 No.4 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 102 No. 4 April 2009
A Case of Relapsing Polychondritis Diagnosed with Dyspnea
Yoko Yajima, Yutaka Tokumaru, Noboru Habu,
Tatsuo Matsunaga, Masato Fujii and Hisaji Oshima
(National Tokyo Medical Center)
Relapsing polychondritis is a relatively rare autoimmune disease which shows the recurrence of progressive inflammation of cartilaginous structures such as auricular and nasal cartilage. Laryngotracheal involvement occurs in more than 50％ of cases during the course of the disease, which sometimes results in airway obstruction. We report a case of relapsing polychondritis with the initial symptom of dyspnea. A 52-year-old female was hospitalized with hoarseness and dyspnea. Fiberscopic examination showes edema of the larynx and trachea. She required a tracheostomy due to airway stenosis. The manifestation of saddle nose and histological findings regarding the tracheal cartilage led to a diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis. After steroid therapy was started, the tracheal chondritis was improved. However, a T-tube was still positioned in the larynx because dyspnea and laryngeal stenosis did not show improvement.
Key words :relapsing polychondritis, T-tube, laryngeal stenosis