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What causes a Tracheal Diverticulum?

Hello. Two weeks ago I had a chest CT scan because I thought I had aspirated water when drinking. The CT scan came back clear but in the report it said there was “small tracheal diverticulum at the thoracic inlet”. I am really worried about this because I fear I may have caused this to myself.

You see when I was drinking the water I became hyper aware about drinking and breathing at the same time. It felt like I tried to do both at the same time and forced my trachea open. I felt a lot of pressure in my throat. Is it possible this pressure caused the tracheal diverticulum? Or is this something that is caused by other things? Thank you.
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15695260 tn?1549593113
Hi there, welcome to the forum. Sorry this took a bit of time to answer and thank you for the question. This is normally an incidental finding. Meaning it doesn't cause any issues but surfaces in some other test or exam. You can either be born with this or acquire it. It's normally asymptomatic but if it does cause symptoms, it is things like chronic cough, dyspnea or chronic infections. That it is just there is not a concern. Later, if you develop symptoms, COPD will be something to investigate as these two things can eventually be linked. Normally it isn't treated and if it has to be in the rare situation, it's done surgically. Ask your doctor about this. You can not make it worse by coughing, coughing is a bodily function.
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