Laser therapy of dysphonia plica ventricularis

Dysphonia plica ventricularis involves the faulty participation of the ventricular folds in the act of phonation. The speech disorder was one of the first to be described with the use of indirect laryngoscopy. This dysphonia can occur as a compensation for anatomic or physiologic alterations within the larynx (vicarious type) or as isolated ventricular fold hypertrophy unaccompanied by other obvious laryngeal disorders (usurpative type). Conservative phoniatric therapy has been the primary modality of treatment for dysphonias resulting from ventricular fold hypertrophy, with surgical intervention being reserved for those patients not responding to speech therapy. We describe the successful use of the carbon dioxide laser in the excision of the hypertrophied false vocal cords in a patient who failed conservative management with speech therapy.