Hairs grow in the THROAT of 52-year-old in rare complication from decades of smoking READ MORE: Man's tongue grows hair from cigarettes and antibiotics By Luke Andrews Senior Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 23:42, 24 June 2024 | Updated: 00:15, 25 June 2024 e-mail View comments A man who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years experienced a rare complication stemming from his habit that saw him grow hair deep inside his throat. The patient visited doctors in 2007 complaining of a hoarse voice, trouble breathing and a chronic cough.
He told doctors he had begun smoking in 1990 at 20 years old and already had reported one instance of having coughed up a hair. Based on his symptoms, doctors performed a procedure that allowed them to guide a small camera down the patient's airway and they discovered several hairs growing from an area in his throat he had previously had surgery on. While the medical team was able to remove the hairs, they continued to re grow and the patient would return to the hospital every year for the next 14 years with the same symptoms.
The condition was only treated once the now-52-year-old stopped smoking and doctors burnt the hair cells in his throat in 2022, which stopped them from coming back. Shown above is a scan of the individual's throat, with the arrows pointing to places where the trachea - or windpipe - has been constricted The above images show hairs that were in the man's throat. Doctors would pluck these out every year for .