[Use of the buccal fat pad for vocal fold injection]

In recent years, autologous fat has been increasingly used for intracordal injection as a means of vocal rehabilitation in patients with deficient glottal closure, and the dipose tissue used has for the most part been harvested from the lower abdomen. However, patients differ considerably in the amount of fat available in the lower abdomen, and obtaining sufficient fat is often difficult in patents with a low body mass index (BMI). To overcome this problem we tried adopting a method that uses the buccal fat pad, as practiced in plastic surgery. The details of the method and the postoperative course are reported. The intracordal fat injection method for buccal fat pad tissue was performed in 10 cases during the 1-year from January 2005 to December 2005, and the patients' postoperative course was carefully monitored for more than 6 months after surgery. With the exception of one case, no signs of complications, such as swelling, infection, etc., were seen at the site of fat collection or in the vocal cord after the operation. Phonation was markedly improved after the injection, and the improvement was maintained throughout the observation period. Treatment of unilateral recurrent nerve paralysis by intracordal injection of autologous fat harvested from the buccal fat pad was successful.