New technique for the treatment of bilateral vocal cord paralysis: Vocal and ventricular fold lateralization using crossing sutures with thyroplasty technique.
CONCLUSIONS
All patients treated with this new lateralization technique had a good quality of life and no dyspnea at rest or upon exertion. We believe that this technique is an important addition to the many surgical techniques for the treatment of bilateral vocal cord paralysis (BVCP).


OBJECTIVE
Most techniques used in the treatment of BVCP result in a prolapse of the laryngeal soft tissues into the endolarynx owing to Bernoulli's principle. We have developed a new lateralization technique to more effectively prevent this prolapse.


METHODS
The lateralization was initially tested on six cadaver larynges before being performed in five clinical cases with BVCP, who suffered from dyspnea at rest. Average follow-up was 17.6 months. As in type 1 thyroplasty, a rectangular piece of cartilage was excised horizontally from the thyroid lamina and placed on the defect in the vertical plane. Then, the vocal and ventricular folds were lateralized with crossing sutures, particularly in the posterior region.


RESULTS
Dyspnea was eliminated postoperatively. All patients were successfully decannulated. Postoperative voice quality was socially acceptable. Airways were improved postoperatively, as evaluated via fiberoptic laryngoscopy and CT. The mean preoperative and postoperative rima openings were 1.3 mm (range 0.5-2.6) and 6.4 mm (range 3.4-8.1), respectively.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Izmir Atatürk Research and Training Hospital, Ministry of Health, Turkey.
Hüseyin
H
Katilmiş
Sedat
S
Oztürkcan
Sinan
S
Başoğlu
Hale
H
Aslan
Ali Ekber
AE
Ilknur
Nezahat Karaca
NK
Erdoğan
Muhsin Engin
ME
Uluç
Mehmet Ali
MA
Tayfun
Rıza
R
Dündar
Işıl Adadan
IA
Güvenç
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D058753:Laryngoplasty / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D013536:Suture Techniques; D014826:Vocal Cord Paralysis / Q000601:surgery*; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000601:surgery*