title: Early voice rehabilitation with injection laryngoplasty in patients with unilateral vocal cord palsy after thyroidectomy.
abstract: Injection laryngoplasty is a safe and efficient procedure for the management of hoarseness resulting from unilateral vocal cord paralysis (VCP). However, proper timing and material of injection after the occurrence of VCP are still under discussion. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of early injection laryngoplasty with long-lasting soft tissue filler in patients with post-thyroidectomy unilateral VCP. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 59 consecutive patients who developed unilateral VCP after thyroidectomy and received ArteSense™ injection laryngoplasty. Objective and subjective voice outcomes were compared between early (within 3 months) and late (after 3 months) injection groups. The mean duration from thyroidectomy to injection laryngoplasty was 39.7 and 334.2 days in the early and late injection groups, respectively. All of the tested objective and subjective voice parameters were significantly improved in both the early and late groups. However, the amount of voice improvement was significantly larger in the early injection group, especially jitter% (P = 0.02) and shimmer% (P = 0.03) improvement. Four patients showed spontaneous recovery from VCP after early injection laryngoplasty; nevertheless, their voice outcomes were excellent and there was no significant discomfort or complication. Early voice rehabilitation with injection laryngoplasty is a safe and efficient treatment in the patients with post-thyroidectomy unilateral VCP.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Biomedical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeon Yeob
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, 135-710, Korea.
authors.forename: Giljoon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, 135-710, Korea.
authors.forename: Jungmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 50 Irwon-dong, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, 135-710, Korea. yison@skku.edu.
authors.forename: Young-Ik
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Son
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D058753:Laryngoplasty / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013965:Thyroidectomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014826:Vocal Cord Paralysis / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D014833:Voice Quality
keywords: Injection laryngoplasty; Injection material; Thyroidectomy; Timing of injection; Vocal cord paralysis