Anomaly in trachea

[Tillylils]

My dad is 63 and has never smoked and is generally in good health. He has had a cough for a few months and has been back and forth to the doctors, resulting in him having a ct scan, the result of which he's had today. There is a 6mm anomaly on his trachea, and he now has to have a camera down to have a look. I'm so worried. When I Google it the only thing that comes back is cancer. I'm really hoping someone might have another idea of what this could be.

DS2 has something wrong with his trachea and it's definitely not cancer.

He has an Aberrant Right Subclavian Artery (ARSA). Basically the subclavian artery has come off his aortic arch in the wrong place and crosses near his trachea/osophagus. It was found out on a barium swallow when he was 11 months old. He then had to have a CT scan and a laryngoscopy (camera down his throat). His trachea/Osophagus have both got a huge indentation in them...no idea of size cause obviously he's grown since it was diagnosed (He's 6.5 now).

It can cause difficulty swallowing and a persistent cough in some cases as it irritates the trachea and also often causes slight reflux which also exacerbates the coughing.

People can have it and not know at all so it might even be something like that.

Thank you for replying, that makes me feel better. Fingers crossed it's something like that.

I'm sorry that your son has that and I hope it doesn't cause him too many problems.

My daughter has ARSA - found out at our 20 week scan last week, can you advise on the difficulty this may cause as a child or later in life? I’m worried she may have swallowing, speech, speech challenges.
And advise greatly received,
Thank you!