An Adult with Chondromalacia of the Epiglottic Cartilage of Unknown Etiology

We reported a rare adult case of chondromalacia of the epiglottic cartilage.The patient was a 66-year-old male complaining of sleep apnea for the previous two years. There was neither a history of head and neck surgery, nor any head injury or coma.Laryngofiberscopic findings showed a prolapse of the epiglottis during inspiration. Under polysomnography, this case was diagnosed as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome with an apnea index of 22.3. There were no physical findings suggesting elapsing polychondritis.Considering the patient's age, a staged epiglottectomy was performed in order to avoid misswallowing after the operation. The staged operations to resect the majority of the free portion of the epiglottis were effective and resulted in no misswallowing.The pathological finding for the resected epiglottic cartilage was chondromalacia of unknown etiology.