Sarcoidosis with cranial polyneuritis and mediastinal granulomatous compression as a cause of unilateral left vocal fold paralysis has been reported infrequently. No case of sarcoidosis causing bilateral vocal fold paralysis in the abducted position has been reported in the Otolaryngology/Voice literature. Vocal fold function can be impacted in sarcoidosis by direct laryngeal involvement or by ...

HYPOTHESIS Recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis after thyroidectomy can be unrecognized without routine laryngoscopy, and patients have a good potential for recovery during follow-up. DESIGN A prospective evaluation of vocal cord function before and after thyroidectomy. Periodic vocal cord assessment was performed until recovery of cord function. Persistent cord palsy for longer than 12 months...

BACKGROUND Acute suppurative thyroiditis is an increasingly rare entity, accounting for less than 0.1% of thyroid surgery. This is the first report in the literature of acute thyroiditis causing a unilateral reversible vocal cord paralysis. METHODS A 41-year-old woman was initially seen with a unilateral vocal cord paralysis resulting from acute suppurative thyroiditis. RESULTS The vocal co...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate whether the timing of early (≤6 months from time of nerve injury) vs. late (>6 months) injection medialization laryngoplasty impacts the need for subsequent open-neck reconstruction to restore vocal function in patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective chart review. METHODS A total of 112 outpatient or hospitalized adults with dysphonia...

BACKGROUND Vocal cord paralysis after tracheal intubation may be attributed to ageing and comorbidity. However, the relationship between patient characteristics and the risk of vocal cord paralysis is unknown. METHODS We prospectively analysed data representing 31 241 consecutive surgery patients who underwent tracheal intubation to determine whether duration of intubation, age, sex, and card...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The posterior cricoarytenoid (PCA) muscle is one of the intrinsic muscles of the larynx innervated by the recurrent laryngeal nerve. As such, recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy should not only result in paralysis of the true vocal cord or thyroarytenoid muscle but also in a similar change in the PCA muscle. The ability of CT and MR imaging to depict denervation atrophy in th...