Bilateral Vocal Cord Palsy Secondary to Rheumatoid Arthritis

TL;DR

An elderly woman with rheumatoid arthritis developed a life-threatening breathing issue due to vocal cord paralysis, highlighting the rare but serious complications of the disease.

Contribution

This case report highlights bilateral vocal cord palsy as a rare but critical complication of rheumatoid arthritis.

Findings

Bilateral vocal cord palsy can occur in advanced rheumatoid arthritis, leading to acute respiratory distress.

Surgical interventions like tracheostomy may be considered but must be weighed against patient quality of life.

Non-invasive ventilation and palliative care were ultimately chosen as the most suitable management for the patient.

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can cause a number of laryngeal manifestations; however, most of these do not cause an airway emergency. Airway obstruction due to vocal cord fixation of one or both vocal cords occurs late in the disease process of RA and can present as an inspiratory stridor. We report the case of an elderly lady who presented with acute stridor secondary to RA-induced bilateral vocal cord palsy and describe the various management options that were considered.

An 85-year-old woman presented to A&E Resus with tachypnoea, stridor, and drowsiness. An arterial blood gas (ABG) was performed which showed hypercapnic respiratory failure on 60% oxygen with blood tests revealing moderately raised infective markers and a chest X-ray displaying right lower zone consolidation. A flexible nasendoscopy was performed which demonstrated bilaterally fixed and adducted vocal cords due to bilateral cricoarytenoid joint fixation, with a rima glottidis measurement of approximately 3 mm and evidence of paradoxical breathing. The patient had been admitted with a similar presentation 18 months before, however not as severe, and once again, the bilateral vocal cord palsy had been attributed to her longstanding RA. She was stabilised with non-invasive ventilation and transferred to the acute respiratory care unit. Long-term surgical options were thoroughly discussed including tracheostomy, vocal cord lateralisation, cordotomy, and arytenoidectomy, but ultimately, these options were all deemed unsuitable for the patient and so a palliative care approach was adopted following the withdrawal of bilevel positive airway pressure.

Stridor is a late but life-threatening complication of RA that has viable surgical options of tracheostomy and static glottis enlarging procedures; however, the appropriateness of such procedures should always be correlated with the patient's current clinical status and the extent to which they may impact on the patient's quality of life.