ABSTRACT
Laryngeal trauma can disrupt one or all of the functions of the larynx, and as the ‘gateway’ to the lungs, injury can be acutely life-threatening. Laryngeal trauma often co-exists with cervical and intracranial injuries, and frequently forms part of a multiple trauma scenario. Laryngeal trauma can be broadly divided into external trauma, which can be blunt or penetrating, and internal trauma, which can be caused by iatrogenic, thermal, caustic or foreign body injuries. Laryngeal injury can be confounded by the process of laryngeal calcification, which begins during the third decade of life, is more pronounced in males, and can lead to fracture comminution. Penetrating laryngeal trauma, which is due predominantly to interpersonal violence or war, is becoming the predominant form of laryngeal trauma in the USA, although in the UK blunt trauma dominates. The commonest presenting feature of laryngeal trauma is hoarseness, followed by dysphagia, anterior cervical pain, breathlessness and haemoptysis.
