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Yang Zou, Zhen Wang, Gang Wang, Li Zhang, Zhengyu Cheng, Feng Miao, Tuo Chen, An unusual cause of hemoptysis and hoarseness due to live leech in the glottis: case report, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 31, Issue 1, January 2024, taac089, https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taac089
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Extract
Introduction
Foreign body in the upper respiratory is one of the life-threatening emergencies in ENT, which can cause severe clinical symptoms such as hoarseness, respiratory distress, hemoptysis and throat foreign body sensation. The most common foreign bodies are foods such as nuts.1Importantly, leeches are rarely seen as foreign bodies in the glottis.
Leeches are blood-sucking hermaphroditic worms that inhabit pools, streams and lakes. Leeches attach to amphibians, fish and mammals and feed on their blood.
Leeches can enter the body when people drink untreated water or swim in contaminated water. There have been reports of infections in the nose, pharynx, throat, esophagus, tonsils, etc., accompanied by hemoptysis, dysphonia, stridor, choking, respiratory distress and foreign bodies.
Case study
The patient was a 67-year-old male from rural Leshan City, Sichuan Province, China. The main symptoms of the patient were hoarseness, cough, intermittent dyspnea and foreign body sensation in the throat for 2 months. After coughing and expectorating sputum, the dyspnea was not relieved, the sputum was red and there was hemoptysis.