How is rrp transmitted

However, at the Grabscheid Voice and Swallowing Center, we often see patients whose disease continues to reoccur after multiple surgeries. Our experts are experienced in managing patients with multiple recurrences and have special tools available to them to assist in management. An individual with the virus in the tissues that line the respiratory tract develops warty-like growths that can interfere with the normal function of these tissues or block the airway. There are many different subtypes of the HPV virus, the ones that grow the larynx subtype 6 and 11 , are not usually associated with an increased risk of turning into cancer.

This is unlike the forms that often grow in the female genital tract types 16 and 18 that area associated with an increased risk of cancer. HPV is transmitted from person to person through direct contact, but not all patients with the virus in their system express the disease. Scientists do not know what make a particular person express the disease, while their spouse or other close contact family members never show any signs of infection. RRP can express itself in both children and adults.

There is no predilection based on gender. Children usually develop symptoms of the disease before the age of 5 and often are the first born of young mother under the age of 20 with an active infection in their vaginal tract. Once a person has the virus in his or her body, it is always there, but it may lay dormant or may begin to cause symptoms. RRP is diagnosed by visualization of lesions in the airway. Once noted, diagnosis is confirmed by biopsy. Lesions can be excised by multiple techniques, but are typically removed during a Rigid Laryngoscopy and Bronchoscopy procedure.

There are multiple different instruments that can be used to remove the lesions, and your Surgeon will discuss with you the risks and benefits of the techniques that be recommended. While lesions are removed as completely as possible, the virus remains in the body, and the lesions will grow back over time. Sometimes this happens very slowly and a child requires only procedures a year to remove the lesions.

In other cases, lesions can grow very rapidly, and a child may require procedures monthly or even more often to prevent airway obstruction. Surgery is designed to debulk visible lesions. There are many methods of removing papilloma lesions including cold steel resection, use of a microdebrider machine and laser resection.

Care must be taken not to damage normal tissue and induce irreversible scar, which may make the voice permanently worse or obstruct the breathing. The KTP laser is a new kind of treatment designed to cause minimal collateral damage to normal tissues by targeting the blood supply of the papilloma. Typically the papilloma lesions recur over time as surgery is unable to eliminate the virus from surrounding infected cells and people usually require multiple surgeries until their immune system clears the virus naturally.

Many medical treatments have been tried however there is no one good agent which is able to cure RRP. Some affected people report than Indolecarbiole I3C or Diindylemethane DIMM , which are natural extracts of broccoli and cauliflower can help to reduce disease severity whilst these supplements are being taken.

There is a promising new agent, also used in treatment of cancer, which targets the growth of new blood vessels into the papilloma to slow down their growth. Facebook Twitter RSS. Why does RRP occur? Beyond the previously noted risk factors regarding the transmission of HPV, it is still not very well understood why only certain individuals develop RRP. It is estimated that approximately 5 percent 5 in of the U. Some experts speculate that perhaps those few who develop RRP have some subtle deficiency of the immune system.

Research is underway to determine this possible deficiency. What are the symptoms of RRP? The size and location of the masses within the vocal fold opening account for the degree of voice dysfunction.

When lesions form near or on the vocal folds, hoarseness can occur even with small lesions. Breathing Difficulty Breathing difficulty is more common in children but can occur in adults. If the growths become cauliflower-like within the opening of the breathing passage where you breathe , they can block the breathing passage.

As a result, shortness of breath can occur.