Upper Respiratory Tract Tuberculosis

Abstract

A conservative estimate suggests that there were 60,000 cases of laryngeal tuberculosis in England in 1933 (15). At a time when one third of all patients with tuberculosis died, more than two thirds of those with tuberculous laryngitis died. The striking decline in laryngeal tuberculosis recognized clinically between the first and second world wars — from 25% of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1914 to 5% in 1941 — resulted from earlier diagnosis and treatment with artificial pneumothorax, pneumoperitoneum, avulsion of the phrenic nerve, and thoracoplasty. Proportional reductions were seen in tuberculosis of the epiglottis, tonsils, oral cavity, and middle ear (6). In the years immediately preceding the use of streptomycin, autopsy studies on patients who died from pulmonary tuberculosis found laryngeal involvement in one third (2).

Even the notorious optimism of the tuberculosis patient receives a check when he finds that his voice has become hoarse or that he has pain on swallowing.

— Ormerod, 1939