30-Year Smoker Visits Hospital Due to Poor Health, Doctor Says "There Is Hair Inside Your Throat"

Published in the 'Case Reports Journal' as a Rare Case

A man who has consistently smoked one pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years has attracted attention for experiencing a rare symptom of 'hair' growing inside his throat.

A recent case of this rare symptom in a man in his 50s from Austria, referred to as Mr. A, was published in the international medical journal, the American Journal of Case Reports. Mr. A had been suffering from hoarseness, difficulty breathing, and chronic coughing since 2007, eventually seeking medical help. He reported that the symptoms appeared 16 years after he started smoking. Mr. A began smoking in 1990.

Patient with hair growing inside the throat [Image source=US Case Reports Journal]

The medical team focused on an incident where Mr. A had previously coughed up hair and examined the inside of his throat using a camera. They discovered several strands of hair growing inside his throat. Although Mr. A underwent surgery to remove the hair inside his throat at the hospital, the hair continued to grow afterward. Ultimately, Mr. A had to have the hair removed continuously for 14 years.

The hair inside Mr. A’s throat was about 5 cm long and numbered approximately 6 to 9 strands. Some hairs grew through the vocal cords into the mouth. However, the medical team reported that the uncomfortable symptoms Mr. A experienced were immediately relieved whenever the hair was removed.

The hair growth inside the throat stopped after Mr. A quit smoking and underwent a procedure in 2022 that burned the internal hair cells (located in the cochlear organ of Corti in the inner ear).

The medical team considered this case an extremely rare instance of hair growth and believed that the symptoms were likely triggered by Mr. A’s prolonged smoking. Smoking irritated the tissues inside the throat, causing inflammation, which led stem cells to transform into structures that produce hair.

Additionally, it was revealed that Mr. A had a near-drowning accident around the age of 10, much younger than when he started smoking, which required partial incision surgery on his trachea. Later, he underwent surgery to cover the damaged tissue with ear cartilage and skin, which may have caused hair-like body hair to grow inside his throat.