Primary tuberculosis of the larynx

Abstract

Purpose: To demonstrate the importance of considering the diagnosis of this disease, which presentswith very variable and sometimes misleading clinical and endoscopic features, but for which medicaltreatment is very effective. Material and methods: This retrospective study was based on ten cases of laryngeal tuberculosis managedbetween January 2004 and December 2009. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiology,clinical and complementary investigation findings and treatment of primary tuberculosis of the larynxin a context of endemic tuberculosis based on a review of the literature. Result: In this series, primary tuberculosis of the larynx essentially affected male smokers and drinkers.Clinical and endoscopic signs were totally non-specific and similar to those of laryngeal cancer. Onlybacteriological and histological examinations were able to establish the diagnosis. Once the diagnosiswas confirmed, antituberculosis chemotherapy was administered for a minimum duration of 6 monthswith excellent short-term and long-term results. Conclusion: Globally, the characteristics of this series are closely correlated with those reported in the lit-erature. Due to the non-specific laryngeal signs observed on clinical examination, clinicians must considerthe possibility of laryngeal tuberculosis and must not hesitate to confirm this diagnosis by bacteriologicaland histological examination. Introduction: Tuberculosis is a chronic bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, usuallyaffecting the lung, but very rare cases of isolated laryngeal tuberculosis have been reported.