TRANSCUTANEOUS INTRACORDAL SILICON INJECTION FOR UNILATERAL VOCAL CORD PARALYSIS

Unilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis causes the vocal cord t o atrophy, leading to glottic incompetence. The voice is characterized by hoarseness, breathlessness, rapid air escape, ineffective cough an d aspiration. Traditional treatments of unilateral vocal cord paralysi s include intracordal injection, laryngeal framework surgery, and lary ngeal reinnervation for medialization of the vocal cord. In this paper we report on a new technique of transcutaneous intracordal silicon in jection in which the injection is made through the thyroid lamina unde r local anesthesia monitoring fiberscopy. We performed this procedure on 30 patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis and later evaluate d their post-operative voice. The silicon injection resulted in improv ement of vocal quality, favorable clearance of sputum, and aspiration control. We found that, since it can be performed under local anesthes ia without hospitalization, transcutaneous intracordal silicon injecti on should be performed as a therapy for treating unilateral vocal cord paralysis.