A healthy 15-year-old girl had her vocal cords paralyzed after contracting COVID-19.
The patient was admitted with “severe respiratory distress” to Mass Eye and Ear, a member of Mass General Brigham, nine days after contracting the virus. An examination with an endoscope revealed that both her vocal cords and voice box had become paralyzed, which her doctors concluded were likely the downstream effects of the COVID-19 infection.
Neurological complications brought on by COVID-19 most likely caused the symptom, researchers said in a case study published on December 19 in the journal Pediatrics. “Given how common this virus is among children, this newly recognized potential complication should be considered in any child presenting with a breathing, talking or swallowing complaint after a recent COVID-19 diagnosis,” first author Danielle Reny Larrow, a resident researcher in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Mass Eye and Ear, said in a statement. “This is especially important as such complaints could be easily attributed to more common diagnoses such as asthma.” After speech therapy failed to relieve the patient’s symptoms, she was given a tracheostomy—a surgical procedure that involved creating an opening in the windpipe. She remained dependent on the tracheostomy for 15 months, although her doctors noted it was removed just in time for her high school graduation and senior prom.