PURPOSE: To present and to demonstrate traumatic displacement of the superior cornu of the thyroid cartilage. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four elderly patients following minor neck trauma were referred for computed tomography (CT). They complained of a feeling of a foreign body in the throat and painful swallowing. Unilateral bulging of the hypopharynx was observed in all of them on indirect laryngoscopy. The patients underwent axial CT with 3-D reconstructions. RESULTS: Axial CT demonstrated unilateral medial convexity of the ossified superior cornu of the thyroid cartilage. 3-D CT demonstrated medial convexity of the ossified complex (the lateral thyrohyoid ligament and superior cornu of the thyroid cartilage). CONCLUSION: The inflexible ossified laryngeal cartilages in elderly patients may not return to normal alignment following traumatic displacement.
PURPOSE: To present and to demonstrate traumatic displacement of the superior cornu of the thyroid cartilage. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four elderly patients following minor neck trauma were referred for computed tomography (CT). They complained of a feeling of a foreign body in the throat and painful swallowing. Unilateral bulging of the hypopharynx was observed in all of them on indirect laryngoscopy. The patients underwent axial CT with 3-D reconstructions. RESULTS: Axial CT demonstrated unilateral medial convexity of the ossified superior cornu of the thyroid cartilage. 3-D CT demonstrated medial convexity of the ossified complex (the lateral thyrohyoid ligament and superior cornu of the thyroid cartilage). CONCLUSION: The inflexible ossified laryngeal cartilages in elderly patients may not return to normal alignment following traumatic displacement.