RECURRENT RESPIRATORY PAPILLOMATOSIS

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis is a rare, benign, viral airway tumor that is caused by the human papillomavirus. The most common way for patients to present is with laryngeal papillomas.

Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) is an uncommon condition caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) that affects roughly 2,000 people in the United States.

Viral, non-cancerous warts called papillomas develop on the surfaces of the respiratory tract; most cases of RRP involve the voice box, or larynx. Occasionally, papillomas will grow in the mouth or windpipe and, in rare cases, the lungs.

There are two types of RRP: adult onset and juvenile onset.Even though papillomas are not cancerous, they are dangerous because their presence in the airway can make breathing difficult.

SYMPTOMS:

• Hoarseness
• Noisy, labored breathing (stridor)
• Respiratory trouble
• Chronic cough
• Feeling that something is stuck in the throat (globus)
• Recurrent pneumonia
• Snoring

CAUSES:

RRP is caused by HPV, two specific HPV subtypes are responsible for more than 90 percent of cases of RRP: HPV 6 and HPV 11.

DIAGNOSIS: LARYNGOSCOPY, BIOPSY.

HOMOEOPATHIC MANAGEMENT:

THUJA OCC - Dry, hacking cough in afternoon, with pain in pit of stomach. Stitches in chest; worse, cold drinks. Asthma in children (Nat sulph). Papilloma of larynx. Chronic laryngitis.

Ars- -Unable to lie down; fears suffocation. Air-passages constricted. Asthma worse midnight. Burning in chest. Suffocative catarrh. Cough worse after midnight; worse lying on back. Expectoration scanty, frothy. Darting pain through upper third of right lung. Wheezing respiration. Hćmoptysis with pain between shoulders; burning heat all over. Cough dry, as from sulphur fumes; after drinking.

Nat sulph - Dyspnśa, during damp weather. Must hold chest when coughing. Humid asthma; rattling in chest, at 4 and 5 am. Cough, with thick ropy, greenish expectoration; chest feels all gone. Constant desire to take deep, long breath. Asthma in children, as a constitutional remedy. Delayed resolution in pneumonia. Springs up in bed the cough hurts so; holds painful side (Bry). Pain through lower left chest. Every fresh cold brings on attack of asthma.

Silica- Colds fail to yield; sputum persistently muco-purulent and profuse. Slow recovery after pneumonia. Cough and sore throat, with expectoration of little granules like shot, which, when broken, smell very offensive. Cough with expectoration in day, bloody or purulent. Stitches in chest through to back. Violent cough when lying down, with thick, yellow lumpy expectoration; suppurative stage of expectoration.