Treatment effectiveness for aging changes in the larynx

To compare the effectiveness of injection augmentation and bilateral thyroplasty surgery in managing age-related changes of the larynx.

Retrospective chart review of patients treated with bilateral thyroplasty and/or injection augmentation.

We evaluated 22 patients before and after treatment using: 1) normalized glottal gap area and normalized true vocal fold width from endoscopic images; 2) patient self-rating questionnaires; and 3) acoustic and aerodynamic measures.

Thyroplasty surgery resulted in 38% of patients demonstrating less bowing compared to 33% after injection, and 63% demonstrated less supraglottic activity compared to 43% after injection (P = 0.09). Change in mean Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) scores was 25.5 after thyroplasty compared to -16.4 after injection (P < 0.05). Those exhibiting a greater than 20 change in V-RQOL after treatment were significantly more likely to report swallowing symptoms pretreatment.

Patients postinjection did not rate themselves on any questionnaires as significantly better compared to pretreatment, whereas patients post-thyroplasty rated themselves as significantly improved on all questionnaires. Patients post-thyroplasty rated their voices as significantly closer to their best voice than patients postinjection. Likewise, 64% of patients who had thyroplasty surgery reported a significant treatment effect compared to 33% for injection augmentation.

4. Laryngoscope, 127:2572-2577, 2017.