[First experience in the treatment of bronchial asthma by resection of the superior laryngeal nerve]. / Pervyi opyt lecheniia bol'nykh bronkhial'noi astmoi putem peresecheniia verkhnego gortannogo nerva.

Operations were conducted on 21 patients for bronchial asthma. Four of them suffered from the hormone-dependent form of the disease. The duration of the disease ranged from 12 months to 18 years. The operations were performed under local anesthesia through a left approach. The internal branch of the superior laryngeal nerve was exposed and identified and a segment of it was resected. The immediate results were positive in 16 cases, no effect was produced in 5 patients. The positive results were confirmed by clinical data and spirometry.

Treatment of spastic dysphonia without nerve section.

Spastic dysphonia is a disorder characterized by strained, constricted phonation with excessively adducted vocal cords. Despite initial success with recurrent laryngeal nerve section, the search for other treatment continues. Our clinical study involved inserting a needle electrode percutaneously into the region of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in five patients with spastic dysphonia. Electrical stimulation resulted in dramatic improvement in three patients and minimal improvement in two. Our experimental study was designed to create an animal model for an implantable nerve stimulator to be used on a long-term basis. A Medtronic spinal cord stimulation system was implanted into a dog, and a cuff electrode was positioned around the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Vocal cord position could be altered by varying the stimulus frequency. Long-term stimulation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve was relatively safe and effective. Eventually, we plan to implant nerve stimulators into spastic dysphonia patients who respond well to percutaneous stimulation.