title: "Occult" posterior laryngeal cleft.
abstract: A previously undescribed deficiency of the posterior cricoid at the midline, wherein the mucosa overlying this deficiency is intact, is described. Clinically this presents as a variety of subglottic stenoses wherein the narrowing is primarily in the transverse subglottic diameter; the symptoms are, therefore, those of airway obstruction not laryngeal incompetence. It is suggested that this deformity has been previously overlooked by laryngologists and pathologists by virtue of a postmortem routine in which the larynx is routinely split in the posterior midline. Demonstration in these cases was by serial horizontal section of the intact, unsplit, whole larynx.
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maddalozzo
mesh_terms: D000015:Abnormalities, Multiple; D016122:Brachiocephalic Trunk / Q000002:abnormalities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007830:Larynx / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000473:pathology; D014135:Tracheal Stenosis / Q000151:congenital* / Q000209:etiology