Causes of chronic laryngitis

Some causes of chronic laryngitis include: (1)

• 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 anti-reflux treatment
      
      
• autoimmune
  • rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
    • laryngeal symptoms are reported between 30% and 75% of patients with RA
  • mucous membrane pemphigoid
    
    
• granulomatous
  • 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