Ventral cleft of the larynx in an adult. Case report

Congenital clefts of the larynx are rare and usually found dorsally. This case report describes a patient with a partial anterior nonfunsion, or ventral cleft, of the thyroid cartilage. This was first noted on computed tomography of the larynx used for delineation of carcinoma and was confirmed by horizontal whole mount histologic sections of the resected larynx. The thyroid cartilage suggested arrested fusion of the laminae in the middle to late embryonic period. This patient had an adult form of this rarely reported anomaly and the first, to our knowledge, detected with CT scan.