title: The potential of virtual laryngoscopy in the assessment of vocal cord lesions.
abstract: 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.
authors: Department of Otolaryngology/Head, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. pwalshe@rcsi.ie
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Walshe
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Hamilton
authors: D
authors: D
authors: McShane
authors: R
authors: R
authors: McConn Walsh
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Walsh
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Timon
mesh_terms: 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*