Infiltrative laryngeal disease in dogs

Objectives: To describe the clinical features and outcome of neoplastic and inflammatory infiltrative laryngeal disease in dogs.

Materials and methods: Medical records at a single referral centre were retrospectively reviewed for dogs diagnosed with infiltrative laryngeal disease by CT or laryngoscopy.

Results: Fifteen dogs were included, with a median age of 6 years (range 1-14 years). Thirteen dogs were diagnosed with inflammatory disease including granulation tissue (n = 4) and neutrophilic (n = 2), septic neutrophilic (n = 2), eosinophilic (n = 1) lymphocytic/plasmacytic (n = 1) and mixed/unclassified (n = 3) inflammation. One dog was diagnosed with large cell lymphoma and one dog was diagnosed with mast cell tumour. Twelve dogs survived to discharge. Follow-up was available for 10 dogs diagnosed with inflammatory disease. Four had fully recovered (7, 10, 23 and 32 months) and one dog developed acute leukaemia and was euthanased at 2 months. Five dogs had recurrence of clinical signs at 1, 1, 5, 17 and 26 months. The dog with lymphoma was euthanased at 8 months and the dog with mast cell tumour died at 5 months.

Clinical significance: In this cohort, infiltrative inflammatory lesions of the larynx were more common than neoplastic infiltration. For dogs that survived to discharge, outcome was fair although relapse was common.