Case Report Relapse of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Involving the Trachea: Acute Subglottic Obstruction

Copyright © 2014 Allen Y. Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Relapsing lymphoma involving the trachea causing tracheal obstruction is exceedingly uncommon. Despite its rarity, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis when a patient with known lymphoma presents with signs of airway obstruction such as stridor. We report an unusual case of relapsing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma with tracheal involvement in a 57-year-old female and review the relevant literature. It is highly unusual for relapsing lymphoma to involve the trachea causing tracheal obstruction. Despite its rarity, it can present with life-threatening airway obstruction which may be rapidly progressive requiring immediate surgical intervention such as tracheostomy. 1