A Rare Case of Congenital Laryngeal Cleft in an Adult that Showed Effective Improvement in Dysphagia with Endoscopic Repair

Abstract

A laryngeal cleft is a rare congenital malformation of the posterior laryngeal or laryngotracheal wall with an incidence of ≦ 0.1%. Since it presents with symptoms of dysphagia, aspiration pneumonia, and hoarseness in early childhood, many patients with laryngeal clefts are often diagnosed in infancy. We herein report a rare case involving an adult patient with a typeII-laryngeal cleft who underwent endoscopic repair and showed improvement in dysphagia. The characteristic findings on laryngeal endoscopy of this disease include enlargement of the inter-arytenoid region and redundant soft tissue overlying the arytenoid cartilages that prolapses into the cleft (ram sign) as well as a gap behind the vocal process during vocalization. Otolaryngologists need to be aware of this characteristic finding, since the disease is often overlooked.