Laryngeal sensation before and after clearing behaviors.
OBJECTIVE
People frequently present to voice clinics with complaints of irritating laryngeal sensations. Clinicians attempt to reduce the irritating sensations and their common sequela, coughing and throat clearing, by advocating techniques that remove the irritation with less harm to the vocal fold tissue. Despite the prevalence of patients with these complaints, it is not known if the less harmful techniques recommended by clinicians are effective at clearing irritating laryngeal sensations or that irritating laryngeal sensations are, in fact, more frequent in people with voice disorders than people without voice disorders.


METHODS
Assessments of participant-reported laryngeal sensation, pre- and post-clearing task, were obtained from 22 people with and 24 people without a voice disorder. Six clearing tasks were used to preliminarily evaluate the differing effects of tasks believed to be deleterious and ameliorative.


RESULTS
People with and without voice disorders reported pre-clear laryngeal sensation at a similar rate. Post-clear sensation was less likely to be completely or partially removed in people with voice disorders than in the nonvoice-disordered group. Hard throat clear and swallow with water were the most effective techniques in removing laryngeal sensation.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings provide initial evidence for some of the clinical practices common to treating patients with voice disorders and chronic clearing, such as advocating for swallowing a sip of water, as a replacement behavior instead of coughing or throat clearing. However, the findings raise questions about other practices such as associating irritating laryngeal sensation with a voice disorder.
Department of Health Sciences and Research, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA. bonilhah@musc.edu
Heather Shaw
HS
Bonilha
Terri Treman
TT
Gerlach
Lori Ellen
LE
Sutton
Amy Elizabeth
AE
Dawson
Paul J
PJ
Nietert
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003371:Cough / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003679:Deglutition; D005260:Female; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D007830:Larynx / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010614:Pharynx / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012677:Sensation; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*