A man who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years reportedly suffered a rare complication that led to hair growing inside his throat.
The Austrian patient visited doctors in 2007 complaining of a hoarse voice, difficulty breathing, and a chronic cough. He revealed that he started smoking in 1990 when he was 20 years old. He also reported that a hair came out of his cough on one occasion.
When the medical team examined him, they discovered several hairs growing from an area in his throat "where he had previously undergone surgery."
Despite the hair being removed, it continued to grow back, causing the patient to return to the hospital every year for 14 years.
Reports revealed that this condition was not treated until the patient (52 years old) stopped smoking, and the medical team also burned the hair cells in his throat in 2022 to prevent their return.
The man was diagnosed with hair growth inside the trachea (or throat) in an extremely rare case, as only a few similar cases have been recorded in the medical literature.
Experts said that smoking can cause inflammation in the tissues in the throat, which may cause stem cells to turn into hair follicles, or a group of cells and structures that cause hair growth.
The doctors explained in the report, which was published in the American Journal of Case Reports: “We assume that the onset of hair growth was caused by the patient smoking cigarettes. This may have stimulated hair growth inside the trachea. But, of course, this assumption cannot be proven due to the rarity of such cases.” .
The team also noted that the patient was on the verge of drowning at the age of ten, which led to his trachea being cut to put an air tube in place so he could breathe. Later, the hole was closed using cartilage and skin from his ear, and hair growth was discovered around the part of the transplant in the throat.