Smoking undoubtedly presents serious health risks. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung conditions, and early skin aging are among these risks. But this one is new and unquestionably "disgusting." An Austrian smoker began to acquire black wiry hair in his throat, an unusual side effect of his cigarette addiction. The 52-year-old patient, who wishes to remain unidentified, reported breathing problems, a chronic cough, and a raspy voice, according to medical records.
Last Monday, the American Journal of Case Reports released a case report of his. The individual saw doctors in 2007, which was about 17 years after he started smoking. Following a bronchoscopy, the man's throat displayed hair and symptoms of irritation. The hair continued to grow for fourteen years, necessitating yearly removal treatments.
The man underwent tracheotomy treatment to stabilize his breathing after nearly drowning when he was ten years old.
The cut was then sealed with his ear's skin and cartilage. Later, hair growth was observed around the graft site when he went to obtain treatment for his cough and dyspnea. When the hair was originally removed by doctors, the man was not really comforted.
He was also given antibiotics after it was determined that the hair was infected with bacteria. But over the next fourteen years, the hair continued to grow back.
He was diagnosed with an extremely rare illness called endotracheal hair growth, also referred to as hair growth in the throat.
The physicians couldn't be positive, but they guessed that the hair growth was most likely caused by his smoking habit. The authors of the American Journal of Case Report claim that this unusual occurrence is only comparable in two cases.
Scientists have shown that smoking might irritate the throat, which can encourage cell division in hair follicles.
Every time the doctors examined the patient, six to nine two-inch hairs would emerge from his throat. Some of the hair started to grow upward and burrow into his mouth.
According to the experts, the patient's smoking cigarettes may have started the hair growth. They did note that it is difficult to confirm this assumption because these kinds of events are rare.
The man stopped smoking in 2020, and the doctors decided not to give him remedial therapy until then. Using an endoscopic technique called argon plasma coagulation, they burnt the hair root.
Two hair strands that had disappeared after a year came back and required more care. No more hair has grown back since then.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)
