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Article
July 1967

Cleft Larynx

Author Affiliations

New Haven, Conn
From the Section of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.

Arch Otolaryngol. 1967;86(1):82-87. doi:10.1001/archotol.1967.00760050084018
Abstract

THE SMALL NUMBER of reported cases of cleft larynx in the literature would indicate that this is a rare anomaly. This is probably not so, however, and it is our belief that, more often than not, this lesion goes undiagnosed. A case in point is the subject of this paper, a boy who spent all but two of his 46 months of life in hospitals before a proper diagnosis was made and surgery undertaken. The diagnosis is difficult simply because one does not usually think of it.

To our knowledge, there have been only 19 cases of cleft larynx previously reported. Synonyms for the anomaly include congenital laryngeal cleft,1 esophagotrachea,2,3 and laryngotracheoesophageal cleft.4 Our case is unique in three ways: first, the relatively late age of the child (46 months) when the diagnosis was made; second, the unusual endoscopic finding of a soft tissue mass in the

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