• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.172-178
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• 2022

Background and Objectives Injection laryngoplasty is a common method for treatment of unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Unilateral vocal fold paralysis has various causes, including idiopathic, infection, stroke, neurologic condition, surgery and nerve invasion by cancer. To the knowledge of the authors, there was no study on the relationship between the causes of vocal cord paralysis and the outcome of injection laryngoplasty. Therefore, we tried to investigate the difference in the outcomes of injection laryngoplasty between vocal cord paralysis after surgery group and nerve invasion by cancer group. Materials and Method A retrospective analysis was performed for 24 patients who underwent vocal cord injection due to unilateral vocal cord paralysis caused by surgery or nerve invasion by cancer. The objective quality of the voice was assessed by acoustic voice analysis with the Multi-Dimensional Voice Program. Results Both group showed an improvement of fundamental frequemcy (F0), jitter percent, shimmer (percent), and noise to hearmonic ratio (NHR) after injection laryngoplasty. The vocal cord paralysis due to nerve invasion group showed more improvement in both the mean and median value of F0, shimmer percent and NHR than the vocal cord paralysis due to surgery group, but there was not statistically significant. Conclusion Our study did not show a statistically significant difference in outcome between vocal cord paralysis due to cancer invasion group and surgery group, but statistically tendency was suggested. The vocal cord paralysis due to nerve invasion group showed more improvement in both the mean and median value of acoustic voice analysis than surgery group.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2010

Background and Objectives : Unilateral vocal fold paralysis is generally treated using injection laryngoplasty or voice therapy. However, the decision of treatment method is dependent on clinician's preference and hospital facilities without specific criteria. The purpose of the study was to examine factors predictive of voice therapy outcome in patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. Materials and Method : 38 patients diagnosed as unilateral vocal fold paralysis, aged from 24 to 81 years and undergone voice therapy more than 1 month were included. After 3 to 12 (mean 5.1) sessions of voice therapy, subjects had divided into responder group (RG, 28 patients) and non-responder group (NRG, 10 patients) according to G scale change. Paramters of perceptual assessment, acoustic and aerodynamic measure, and videostroboscopy were compared between two groups, and factors predictive of voice therapy result were analyzed. Results : RG patients showed significantly reduced rough, breathy, asthenic voice after voice therapy. Change of MPT and MFR was more substantial in RG than in NRG. By videostroboscopy, RG patients showed significantly more mucosal wave symmetry, glottal closure, reduced glottal gap index during the closed phase of phonation, while NRG patients showed more occurrences of abnomal supraglottic activities during phonation (p < 0.05). Poor outcome of voice therapy significantly associated with increased asthenic scale, short MPT, and less glottal closure (p=0.02). In addition, 90% of patients with MPT more than 5 seconds were in RG, whereas 56% of patients with MPT less than 5 secondes were in RG. Conclusion : Voice therapy is useful for large proportion of patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis as an initial treatment method. However, patients with large asthenia scale, large glottic gap or MPT less than 5 seconds tend to have poor voice therapy outcome, and early injection laryngoplasty maybe recommended for these patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.59-63
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• 2022

The laryngeal framework surgery (LFS) is an operation to correct the position and tension of the vocal cords by changing the laryngeal cartilage and muscles. LFS such as type 1 thyroplasty, arytenoid adduction, and arytenopexy is performed to improve the voice of patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis. It is known that the voice improvement effect of LFS in patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis is excellent and lasts for a long time. LFS can also be operated under local anesthesia. Complications are not common, however, severe complications like airway obstruction could occur after the operation. Recently, several other attempts to modify the traditional surgical method have been reported. This review is intended to be helpful in understanding the characteristics and changes in laryngeal framework surgery.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.139-141
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• 2019

The causes of vocal cord paralysis include iatrogenic injury during thyroid or cervical surgery, heart and chest surgery, and tumorous lesion such as laryngeal cancer and lung cancer. In addition to these common causes, rarely, cardiovascular disease can also cause vocal fold paralysis. A disease known as Cardiovocal syndrome, or Ortner's syndrome, causes left vocal fold paralysis when the left recurrent laryngeal nerve is compressed by the pulmonary artery and aorta, which is occurred by pulmonary hypertension from heart disease. We report for the first case in Korea the diagnosis of vocal fold paralysis caused by Ortner's syndrome.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.83-86
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• 2018

Background and Objectives : This study aimed to evaluate efficacy and complication of injection laryngoplasty using calcium hydroxyapatite (CaHA) for unilateral vocal fold paralysis in Asian. Materials and Methods : A prospective study was conducted on the adult patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis from May 2015 through January 2016. Injection laryngoplasty was performed by one laryngologist. All patients underwent prospective voice evaluation using the subjective and objective comprehensive battery of assessments, before the procedure and after the procedure at 3 months, and 6 months. Results : A total of 7 patients (5 males and 2 females) were included in this study. VHI-10 was significantly decreased after injection laryngoplasty, at postoperative 6 months (p=0.031), while VAS score and MDADI showed no difference. GRBAS scale gradually decreased in 3 months and 6 months follow-up without statistical significance. Acoustic analysis revealed that jitter, shimmer, and noise-to-harmonic ratio continuously decreased from the baseline at 3 months and 6 months, although statistical significance was not attained. In the aerodynamic analysis, maximal phonation time was gradually increased at 3months and 6 months with significant difference (p=0.016, 0.031, respectively). There was no side effect associated with the procedure. Conclusion : CaHA can be safely used in Asian patients and the onset of maximal efficacy seems to be slow than other studies with Caucasian patients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.112-117
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• 2017

Background and Objectives : The purpose of this study was to classify patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis according to their fixed location and to analysis the effects of two treatment methods by early voice therapy and injection laryngoplasty. Materials and Methods : Twenty patients who were classified as full abduction and slight abduction according to the position of paralysis were treated injection laryngoplasy, and 23 patients were treated by voice therapy. Twenty patients were treated injection laryngoplasy and 23 patients were treated voice therapy. Results were evaluated by acoustic analysis, electroglottography, cepstrum analysis before and after therapy. The voice therapy was conducted by improving the larynx movement and glottal contact, whilst removing hypertension of the supraglottic and use the breathing. Results : Significant improvement was found in the acoustic parameter, cepstrum parameter, and EGG before and after treatment in both groups. There was no significant difference between the two groups when compared before and after treatment to compare the effects of injection laryngoplasty and voice therapy. Conclusion : The initial treatments for unilateral vocal cord paralysis are injection laryngoplasty and voice therapy. however, there is no precise standard about which method should be applied first. Therefore, in this study, we tried to classify patients according to their paralysis position and then apply two methods. The results of this study suggest that voice therapy and Injection laryngoplasty at the initial stage is a very useful method to improve voice quality of vocal fold paralysis and improve laryngeal function.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.138-142
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• 2006

Objectives : Vocal cord paralysis(VCP) is a complex disorder which may result from numerous causes. We reviewed and analyzed the trend of clinical characteristics and causes of VCP in Korean patient. Method : A total 197 patients with VCP who visited St.Mary's hospital from March, 2000 to August, 2006 were reviewed retrospectively. They were analyzed according to sex, age, cause of VCP, position of paralyzed vocal fold, treatment methods. Results : The male and female ratio was 1.6 : 1. The unilateral paralyzed vocal fold was fixed at paramedian position in 84% of the cases. The left vocal fold was paralyzed about 2 1/2 times as much as the right vocal fold. Among the causes of VCP 30.9% of the cases were due to postoperative paralysis, and most of those were developed after lung, mediastinal surgery. laryngeal EMG was performed in 47 patients for determines the prognosis and treatment method. In the unilateral VCP, 90 patients were treated with injection laryngoplasty, 21 patients were performed thyroplasty type I. Conclusion : The causes of VCP include various diseases, so, detection of the primary disease is very important, because many fatal diseases are included among the primary diseases, and late detection can cause serious problems. VCP is not only a disease entity in itself, but can be seen as a sign of an underlying disease.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.129-134
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• 2005

Background and Objectives : Artecoll(R) is an injectable soft tissue filler, which is a suspension of polymethylmethacrylate microspheres in $3.5\%$ bovine collagen solution. The authors aimed to determine the clinical of Artecoll of Artecoll(R) as an injection material into the vocal fold to correct the glottal insufficiency caused by unilateral vocal cord paralysis. Materials and Methods : Forty-one consecutive patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis received percutaneous Artecoll injections under local anesthesia. Acoustic, aerodynamic and stroboscopic analyses were prospectively provided before, 1 week and 3 months after injection. Perceptual GRBAS grading by speech language pathologists and subjective ratings of the hoarseness and aspiration by the patients were also obtained. Results : Aerodynamic parameter(maximal phonation time) were significantly improved after the injection (p<0.05). Acoustic parameters (jitter and shimmer) were improved at the 3rd month follow-up. GRBAS uading and patients own subjective scaling of hoarseness and aspiration also showed significant improvement (p<0.05). Early or delayed significant side effects were not observed. Conclusion : Vocal fold injection with Artecoll is a convenient, safe and useful method of temporarily correcting the glottal insufficiency. Further long-term follow-up studies will answer the usefulness and safety of the Artecoll injection laryngoplasty.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.7-10
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• 2007

Unilateral vocal fold paralysis resulting in glottal incompetence can cause significant morbidity attributable to impaired speech, swallowing, and ability to protect the airway. The treatment of unilateral vocal cord paralysis has a long history, marked by technical innovations and improvements. These methods typically use endoscopic injection or implants to augment the volume of the affected vocal fold. The first known treatment, reported by Brunnings in 1911, was paraffin injection. The first thyroplasty medializing the paralysed vocal cord was performed by Payr in 1915 ; here, a cartilage door-flap was created from the thyroid ala to obtain better voice quality. In the 1970s, Isshiki systematized and developed the use of the external medialization by Payr. Later he modified his original technique, and achieved safer and better results. Many other methods were introduced for external medialization during the 1980s and 1990s. There has been couple of materials using for medialization laryngoplasty: silicone bloc, cartilage, goretex (polytetrafluoroethylene), titanium, etc. Among them, silicone bloc is the most popularly used material. Type I thyroplasty in combination with arytenoid adduction is a proven technique for medialization of the paralysed vocal fold. In this paper, personal experience for using silicone bloc type I thyroplasty : decision making and practical points, long-term results and complication of the procedure will be discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.129-132
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• 2012

Background and Objectives : MPT is directly related to degree of glottal closure. So it is widely used in the assessment of glottal closure with unilateral vocal fold paralysis. But MPT could be influenced not only by glottal closure but also by pulmonary function. So MPT might not reflect glottal closure in UVFP with decreased pulmonary function. The purpose of the study is to evaluate usefulness of MPT and ratio of /s/ time to /z/ time before and after injection laryngoplasty in UVCP with decreased pulmonary function. Materials and Methods : This study involved 34 patients with unilateral vocal fold paralysis : with decreased pulmonary function in group A (n=15) : with normal pulmonary function in group B (n=19). All patients underwent injection laryngoplasty. Paramters of perceptual analysis, acoustic analysis, aerodynamic analysis, videostroboscopy were compared between two groups. Results : Breathness and asthenic scale, G scale of perceptual analysis were significantly improved in both groups. Glottal gap index were significantly decreased after injection in both groups. In aerodynamic analysis, MPT was improved after injection laryngoplasty in both groups, but S/Z ratio was improved only in group B. In correlation analysis, /s/ time was not correlated with pulmonary function. Conclusion : S/Z ratio reflects neither the pulmonary function nor the glottal clousure properly. MPT is more useful indicator than S/Z ratio to evaluate vocal fold paralysis even with decreased pulmonary function.