OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS To determine the clinical yield of neck and chest computed tomography in the initial assessment of patients with idiopathic unilateral true vocal fold paresis. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective chart review. METHODS A retrospective chart review of consecutive adult patients with idiopathic unilateral true vocal fold paresis diagnosed by stroboscopy in a tertiary-care voice cen...

BACKGROUND The term ‘‘vocal fold nodules’’ refers to bilateral thickening of the membranous folds, with minimal impairment of the vibratory properties of the mucosa. They are considered to be related to repetitive mechanical stress, typically related to voice use patterns. Diagnosis is made in the office via either rigid or flexible laryngeal stroboscopy. The reported incidence of vocal fold no...

OBJECTIVE To identify and describe voice, speech and swallowing abnormalities in patients with Sjögren's Syndrome (SS). MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a prospective cross-sectional descriptive observational study. Patients with SS were interviewed and physically explored. Nasolaryngeal endoscopy, video laryngeal stroboscopy, fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing and computerized voic...

Voice disorders are a source of increasing concern as normal voice quality is a social demand for at least one third of the population in developed countries in cases where voice is an essential resource in professional exercise. In addition, the growing exposure to certain pathogenic factors such as smoking, alcohol abuse, air pollution, and acoustic contamination, and other problems such as g...

Because of the close anatomical relationships between thyroid gland and laryngeal nerves, sensory-motor impairment of the laryngeal functions is a well known possible complication of thyroid surgery. Laryngeal nerve paralysis can present with various and often associated symptoms like dysphagia, aspiration, voice alteration or dyspnea. Several examination procedures are mandatory to perform a c...

This study investigated whether trachea pressures during brass instrument play of laryngectomised patients are within the range of those measured during tracheoesophageal voicing, and whether application of an automatic speaking valve can 'free' both hands to play a brass instrument. Objective assessment of voicing and music playing parameters was carried out in 2 laryngectomised patients with ...

Introduction: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) belongs to the group of human herpes viruses and can cause the clinical syndrome of infectious mononucleosis. EBV infection has been reported to cause several neurological complications. However, cranial nerve deficits are rare and have been infrequently reported. To our knowledge, recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy in EBV acutely infected patients has been r...

Previous stroboscopic studies of human vocal cord paralysis have been infrequent and have lacked documentation of the site of lesion. In order to study human laryngeal paralysis, the recurrent and superior laryngeal nerves were infiltrated unilaterally with lidocaine hydrochloride in three human volunteers. Vagal paralysis was simulated by combined (superior and recurrent) infiltration in one v...

Descriptions of vocal fold lesions related to autoimmune diseases are rare in the literature, and focus mainly on rheumatoid nodules. This is the first report in which autoimmune diseases were promptly suspected by the observation of a unique white transverse submucosal lesion in the vocal fold during clinical examination. This lesion, reported only in autoimmune disease, has been called the ba...