Influence of gender and position on injection laryngoplasty

Vocal cord paralysis is a common disorder, and symptoms can range from mild to life-threatening.

Vocal cord injection is a procedure that is employed to reposition a patient's paralyzed vocal cord to improve the voice and to alleviate difficulty in swallowing and coughing that can result when food or liquid slips into the trachea and lungs.

A new study presented at the 2007 AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO has determined that women and men require different techniques for vocal cord injections. The injection entails placing filler material into the paralyzed cord to bring it closer to the other vocal cord. Study authors discovered that women required less injectable filler material than men to produce the desired position of the paralyzed vocal cord, perhaps due to the smaller size of the female larynx.

Study results should be considered in future vocal cord injection procedures, depending on the patient's gender.