What is the yellow colored spot in my throat?

Question

Hi doctor,

I had a cold and sore throat about four months ago. For some stupid reason, I decided to shine a torch to look at the back of my throat and I saw a yellow colored circular spot or cyst or ulcer. I went to a doctor who could not see it, so then I went to another doctor who said there is nothing to worry about. It is a cyst and it will take a while but it should go. Three months past and it was still there. So, I went back to the doctors who gave me antibiotics. Being so frustrated, I decided to use a cotton bud to mess with it and it kind of just turned red. The doctor thought that it was the antibiotics doing its job (I never told him I had messed with it ) so he said that there is nothing to worry about and sent me on my way, and told me to get more rest, but now it has returned again and it is worrying. My throat does not hurt at all.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

You have encircled a granule in the posterior pharyngeal wall, the back of your throat (attachment removed to protect patient identity). You do not have to worry about it. The back of the throat has lymphoid follicles in the form of granules. They along with lateral pharyngeal bands, palatine tonsils, lingual tonsils and adenoids form the Waldeyers ring which have protective function against pathogens. When you have a throat infection, these granules swell up, turn yellow. When you have post nasal drip due to cold or sinusitis or allergy then also these granules get stimulated to become big. When there are no symptoms you can forget about those. But if you are symptomatic we address the granules by doing silver nitrate cauterization using a tip of a small probe under a local anesthetic spray in our office and the granule goes away in a few days time.