The potential of virtual laryngoscopy in the assessment of vocal cord lesions.
Virtual laryngoscopy is a useful adjunctive radiological tool in the assessment of laryngeal lesions. A total of 10 patients requiring direct laryngoscopy for the investigation of laryngeal lesions underwent preoperative virtual laryngoscopy using three-dimensional reconstruction of two-dimensional computerized tomography (CT) images. All lesions were correctly diagnosed on virtual laryngoscopy before direct laryngoscopy. Its main advantages are that it does not require general anaesthesia, it allows three-dimensional visualization of the airway beyond areas of narrowing and it gives a highly accurate representation of vocal cord lesions, both in terms of definition and spatial representation. Its disadvantages are that it does not provide histology, it requires an air-mucosa interface to produce an image and it cannot identify functional lesions of the vocal cords.
Walshe
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P
Department of Otolaryngology/Head, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. pwalshe@rcsi.ie
Hamilton
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S
McShane
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McConn Walsh
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Walsh
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MA
Timon
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C
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007818:Laryngeal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007819:Laryngeal Edema / Q000175:diagnosis; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D007828:Laryngoscopy; D007971:Leukoplakia / Q000175:diagnosis; D011127:Polyps / Q000175:diagnosis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000473:pathology*