title: Causes and imaging manifestations of paralysis of the recurrent laryngeal nerve.
abstract: The vocal cords play a key role in the functions of the larynx. Their motor innervation depends on the recurrent laryngeal nerve (a branch of the tenth cranial nerve), which follows a long trajectory comprising intracranial, cervical, and mediastinal segments. Vocal cord paralysis usually manifests as dysphonia, the main symptom calling for CT study, the first-line imaging test to investigate the cause of the lesion. Patients are asymptomatic in a third of cases, so the incidental detection of signs of vocal cord paralysis in a CT study done for other reasons should prompt a search for a potentially severe occult lesion. This article aims to familiarize readers with the anatomy of the motor innervation of the glottis, the radiological presentation and most common causes of vocal cord paralysis, and conditions that can simulate vocal cord paralysis.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Diagnóstico por la Imagen, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, España. Electronic address: sandramendezgarrido@gmail.com.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Méndez Garrido
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Diagnóstico por la Imagen, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, España.
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Ocete Pérez
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007830:Larynx / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D012009:Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014826:Vocal Cord Paralysis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*
keywords: Anatomía cuerda vocal; Causes; Computed tomography; Nervio laríngeo recurrente; Parálisis cuerda vocal; Recurrent laryngeal nerve; Tomografía computarizada; Vocal cord anatomy; Vocal cord paralysis; causas