Sudden recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis due to apoplexy of parathyroid adenoma

Abstract Neoplastic lesions of the parathyroid are rare, and most of these are adenomas. Even rarer is a secondary involvement of the recurrent laryngeal nerve. A case is presented of sudden onset hoarseness in a 64-year-old man caused by acute vocal cord paralysis due to bleeding within an adenoma of the lower right parathyroid gland. Acute onset of vocal cord paralysis is rarely associated with benign processes; the current case is only the second report associated with parathyroid adenoma.