Treatment Efficacy of Voice Therapy Following Injection Laryngoplasty for Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis.

OBJECTIVES: Injection laryngoplasty (IL) is performed to reduce the gap between vocal folds induced by unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP). Voice quality after IL may be different due to other factors that influence voice quality. Voice therapy has been reported to improve voice quality after IL in patients with UVFP. This study evaluated the efficacy of voice therapy combined with IL. METHODS: Patients with UVFP who underwent IL as primary therapy from March 2017 to June 2019 were evaluated. The enrolled patients were divided into two groups, those who did and did not receive voice therapy after IL. Voice quality was evaluated using perceptual, acoustic, and aerodynamic parameters, and voice handicap index-30 scores one month after IL and after completing each treatment. RESULTS: Of 261 patients who underwent IL during the study period, 40 were enrolled, including 21 who did and 19 who did not receive voice therapy. Voice parameters one month after IL did not differ between these two groups. Jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonic ratio, and mean flow rate decreased, while maximum phonation time increased after voice therapy (both P < 0.05). In the absence of voice therapy, improved voice parameters were maintained for six months after IL. Total voice handicap index-30 scores decreased, from 35.6 to 19.1 (P < 0.05), in patients who received voice therapy. CONCLUSION: Voice therapy following IL is beneficial to patients with UVFP. Combined treatment can help to maintain improved voice quality more than six months after IL.

Treatment Efficacy of Voice Therapy for Vocal Fold Polyps and Factors Predictive of Its Efficacy.

OBJECTIVES: Vocal fold polyps can be treated with either surgical resection or conservative therapy based on voice therapy. This study was designed to analyze the success rate of voice therapy and identify factors that are predictive of the response to this treatment for vocal fold polyps. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of 92 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with vocal fold polyp(s) and received voice therapy. We divided the patients into responding and non-responding groups. We analyzed clinical and voice parameters related to the voice results. RESULTS: After voice therapy, 40 patients showed improved findings and did not undergo surgical treatment. By univariate analysis, female patients (54.9%) and small polyps (56.1%) showed a good response to voice therapy. In multivariate analysis, female sex (odds ratio [OR] = 0.34; confidence interval [CI]: 0.14-0.81, P = 0.01) and small size (OR = 0.15; CI: 0.05-0.47, P <0.01) were significantly related to a successful voice response. In small polyps, the sessile type of polyp was found to be related to a good response rate (OR = 0.24; CI: 0.11-0.95, P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Voice therapy is more effective for small vocal polyps, particularly the sessile type, in female patients.