Sir Morrell Mackenzie (1837–1892) was the first to recognize papillomas as a lesion of the laryngo-pharyngeal system in children in the late 1800s. It is now apparent that these benign tumours may occur at other parts of the upper gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, and in all age groups. It was not until the 1940s that Chevalier Jackson (1865–1958) first coined the term “juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis”. The prevalence of laryngeal papillomatosis has been estimated at between four to seven cases per million person-years in the Western World [
4,
5,
25,
43]. Furthermore, the incidence of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) has been estimated at about 2 per 100,000 in adults and 4 per 100,000 in children [
9]. The disease can be categorized into adult onset and juvenile onset forms. Age of first presentation of disease is usually in the teens (50%) for the juvenile onset form but can be as early as the first year of life. Initial presentation in the adult form tends to peak in the third and fourth decades.
It is now well established that human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are the aetiological agent of many benign and malignant tumours arising from epidermal tissues. They are a necessary cause of the second most common female cancer worldwide, cancer of the cervix [
7,
45], and strongly associated with several other ano-genital cancers such anal, penile, vulval and vaginal carcinomas [
17]. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence of at least some head and neck cancers associated with HPV infection [
15,
17,
23]. These malignancies are associated with ∼15 high risk (HR) types, in particular HPV 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 68, 73 and 82. Benign tumours such as common warts, flat warts and genital warts are caused by low risk types such as HPV 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 11 and others. HPV 6 and 11 have been described as the dominant types found in RRP [
10]. Despite the benign nature of these lesions, there is significant morbidity and occasional mortality due to multiple recurrences which necessitate hospital admission for surgical removal. Dissemination or extension of the growths into the lower airways indicates a poorer prognosis. The clinical behaviour is variable and lesions can regress, persist and in rare instances, progress to carcinoma if other environmental factors such as smoking or irradiation are involved.