A Case of Thyroid Cartilage Fracture

Abstract

A 30-year-old man fractured his thyroid cartilage while participating in Kendo, which is a Japanese sport that involves fighting with wooden swords. He complained of hoarseness and slight pain in the upper neck. Laryngoscopy revealed no vocal cord palsy but slight intralaryngeal hematoma and endolaryngeal swelling. 3-dimentional computed tomography (3D-CT) showed a fracture line in the left thyroid cartilage plate. Seven days after the injury, the inflammation and hematoma had reduced, however, the voice disorder remained. Decreased tension and shortness of the left vocal fold were also clearly revealed. Open reduction was performed with rigid internal fixation of the thyroid cartilage fracture using titanium miniplates under general anesthesia on the 16^th day. The patient’s voice disorder fully recovered after 2 months.
External blunt injury to the larynx can cause not only acute airway trouble but also long-term voice or swallowing dysfunction. It is important to evaluate laryngeal injuries carefully and determine appropriate treatment in order to repair them appropriately.