causes of chronic laryngitis

Last reviewed 01/2018

Some causes of chronic laryngitis include:

• inflammatory
• allergic
• findings are non specific and hard to differentiate from laryngopharyngeal reflux
• larynopharyngeal reflux
• patients may present with non-specific laryngeal manifestations, such as hoarseness, dysphagia, odynophagia, globus pharyngeus, chronic cough, and throat clearing.
• pathophysiology differs from gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD)
• management centres on antireflux treatment
  
  
• autoimmune
• rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• laryngeal symptoms are reported between 30% and 75% of patients with RA
• mucous membrane pemphigoid
  
  
• graanulomatous
• sarcoidosis
• non-specific laryngeal symptoms
• recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy (due to mediastinal lymphadenopathy) may cause dysphonia
• on examination there may be oedematous laryngeal mucosa, with supraglottis being the most commonly involved site, vocal folds are rarely involved
• diagnosis confirmed by biopsy
• requires corticosteroids; or more rarely intralesional injections or laser resection

Reference:

• (1) Wood JM, Athanasiadis T, Allen J. Laryngitis. BMJ. 2014;349:g5827