Wiry black hairs grow deep in the back of man’s throat and voice box after decades of smoking

A MAN who had smoked for decades developed an unusual side effect which left black wiry hairs growing in the back of his throat.

Docs said the 52-year-old, who has not been named, complained of a hoarse voice, trouble breathing and a chronic cough.

American Journal

American Journal

The patient, from Austria, claimed to have started smoking in 1990 when he was 20 years old and already had reported one instance of having coughed up a hair. 

Medics decided to investigate by sending a small camera down his airways, where they discovered several dark hairs growing in his throat.

Initially, doctors were able to extract the hairs, providing the man with temporary relief.

He was also precibed antibiotics, after the hairs were found to be coated in bacteria.

But sadly, the hair continued to return every year for the next 14 years, like clockwork.

He was diagnosed with an extremely rare condition called endotracheal hair growth, or hair growing in the throat.

Although they can’t say for sure, the doctors believed the hair growth was likely triggered by his smoking habit.

Writing in the  American Journal of Case Report, the authors said this bizarre incident was only the second case of its kind.

The scientists – also from Austria – explained that smoking can trigger inflammation of the throat, which can cause cells to turn into hair follicles.

Each time doctors looked, there were six to nine two-inch hairs growing in the man’s throat.

Some of the hairs made a habit of burring themselves into his voice box and making their way up and into his mouth.

“We hypothesise that the onset of hair growth was triggered by the patient’s cigarette smoking,” they said.

“[This] may have induced and stimulated endotracheal hair growth.

“[But], of course, this assumption cannot be proven due to the rarity of such cases.”

CURED

Doctors decided not to offer the man corrective treatment until he stopped smoking, which he eventually did in 2020.

They performed an endoscopic argon plasma coagulation, which involved burning of the hair root.

A year after the procedure, two hairs remerged and another treatment was peformed. 

Since then, no hairs have returned.

In the journal, medics also referred to an incident in the man’s childhood, that involved the area where the hair was sprouting from.

At the age of 10, he had nearly drowned, and his trachea – the tube that connects the voice box to the lungs – was cut open to help him breathe.

The opening was later closed using a skin and cartilage graft from from his ear.

The hair growth was found around the transplanted site in his throat.

RARE SIDE EFFECT

Around 6.4 million Brits smoke cigarettes.

There are lots of dangerous side effects associated with the habit, including an increased risk of cancer, lung disease, heart disease and stroke.

But it is extremely rare for the habit to lead to hair growing in the throat.