Abstract
A 79-year-old man presented to our Ear, Nose, and Throat department with complaints of sudden onset of sore throat and foreign body sensation for 2 days. The clinical examination revealed one cystic lesion on either side of the aryepiglottic fold with saliva pooling in pharyngoepiglottic fold during phonation (Figure 1A). During inspiration, the airway was patent with visible vocal fold (Figure 1B). The patient’s symptoms resolved after 1 week on Augmentin, a mucolytic, and an anti-reflux medication. However, the cysts persisted but asymptomatic; the patient wanted to be managed conservatively.
A, The view of bilateral aryepiglottic cysts was demonstrated when phonation (B) when inspiration.
Acute infection of laryngeal or epiglottic cysts may trigger epiglottitis associated with high risk of respiratory distress and death. 1,2 Moreover, epiglottitis was reported to recur in patients with cysts. 3 It is recommended that the aryepiglottic cysts be managed either by endoscopic excision or by marsupialization of the cysts to prevent rare complications such as acute airway obstruction. 4
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support forthe research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported in part by a grant from the Tri-Service General Hospital (TSGH-D-109053 to H. C. Chen).
