In a rare medical case, a 52-year-old man from Austria experienced an unusual condition where hair began growing inside his throat, known as endotracheal hair growth. This condition, documented in the American Journal of Case Reports, required annual removal of the hair for 14 years due to his heavy smoking history.

The man first sought medical help in 2007 due to symptoms like a hoarse voice, difficulty breathing, and a chronic cough. He admitted to being a heavy smoker since 1990 and even coughed up a 5 cm long hair. His symptoms began in 2006.

During a medical examination using bronchoscopy, doctors discovered hairs growing from a spot in his throat where he had surgery as a child. At age 10, after almost drowning, he had a tracheotomy—a procedure making an incision in the trachea to aid breathing. The surgical site was closed using skin and cartilage from his ear, where the hair began growing.

Initially, surgeons removed six to nine hairs, each about 2 inches long. However, the hairs kept growing back, requiring annual hospital visits for their removal over the next 14 years.

Doctors linked the persistent hair growth to his smoking habit. The growth ceased after he quit smoking in 2022. Doctors then used a procedure called endoscopic argon plasma coagulation to burn the hair cells. A year after this treatment, two more hairs were removed, and another coagulation was done. Since then, no new hair growth has been observed.