A Clinicopathological Study of Benign Lesions of the Vocal Fold

To find out the incidence of various types of benign mucosal lesions of the vocal fold causing hoarseness; To review the role of demographic ,etiological and risk factors in relation to the benign mucosal lesions of the vocal fold. It was a Prospective, observational study. Patients with hoarseness, presenting the ENT and Head-Neck surgery department of a tertiary-care hospital from October 2014 to September 2015 were evaluated by indirect laryngoscopy, fibre-optic laryngoscopy and direct laryngoscopy followed by biopsy. Only those patients with benign vocal fold lesions, sixty in number, were selected. A clinical and epidemiologic profile was made from the data obtained from these patients. Vocal nodules were the commonest type of benign lesions of the vocal fold, followed by vocal fold polyps. Overall, there was a slight male predominance with maximum incidence in the age group 41-50 years. Risk factors for the development of such lesions were voice abuse and smoking more commonly. Dyspepsia, alcohol intake, fume exposure and allergythese were other contributory factors for developing such lesions. These lesions were more common among low socio-economic class and urban population. Life-style modification (voice rest and voice rehabilitation, cessation of smoking, avoidance of alcohol and spicy food) plays a vital role to reduce the incidence of these benign vocal fold lesions significantly.