Paragangliomas of the trachea are rare neoplasms and can present to the clinician with acute airway problems. These neoplasms sometimes are misdiagnosed by general practitioners as asthmatic exacerbation. We present the case of a 66-year-old woman who presented to us with a history of dyspnoea at rest in the supine position and on exertion and a productive cough. This was diagnosed as bronchial asthma and she was treated with corticosteroid inhalers for four months by her GP. She was subsequently evaluated by computed tomography of the neck and thorax, which revealed an intratracheal enhancing lesion measuring around 11 mm in the lower cervical trachea. Fibreoptic bronchoscopy showed a mass lesion at the level of mid trachea. A low tracheostomy was followed by telescopic examination and the mass was resected using coablation. Histology of the mass was reported as paraganglioma. Difficulties encountered and literature review of various management options are presented in this report.
Keywords: Asthma; Coablation excision; Paraganglioma; Tracheal mass; Tracheostomy.