title: Patient-based outcomes of in-office KTP ablation of vocal fold polyps.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent data have suggested that in-office potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) laser treatment for benign vocal fold lesions yields significant reduction in lesion size with favorable effects on both mucosal wave and glottic closure. However, these previous studies omitted voice-related outcomes. We sought to compliment these previous data with voice-related outcomes in a cohort of patients undergoing KTP ablation of vocal fold polyps.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective outcomes study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Voice Handicap Index (VHI)-10 and acoustic measures were reviewed for 31 consecutive patients with benign vocal fold polyps treated with in-office KTP laser surgery. All data were analyzed statistically via a mixed model fit to analyze the data from each of three clinical visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across all patients, the mean VHI-10 scores decreased at first follow-up from 19.7 to 9.7 (P < .0001). At subsequent follow-up visits, the VHI-10 scores remained stable (mean, 8.3). This shift in VHI scores was accompanied by favorable improvements in both noise-to-harmonic ratio and speaking fundamental frequency in both males and females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In-office KTP ablation of vocal fold polyps had a favorable effect on patient-reported handicap as determined by the VHI-10. This treatment also slightly altered physiologic measures of voice; however, these measures did not achieve statistical significance.
authors.affiliation: NYU Voice Center, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Shaum
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sridharan
authors.forename: Stratos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Achlatis
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ruiz
authors.forename: Seema
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeswani
authors.forename: Yixin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Ryan C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Branski
authors.forename: Milan R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Amin
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011127:Polyps / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D014833:Voice Quality
keywords: Voice; outcomes; potassium titanyl phosphate laser