Temporary Vocal Fold Augmentation Outcomes for Refractory Chronic Cough with Concurrent Nonparalytic Glottic...

Determine the effect of temporary vocal fold augmentation on refractory chronic cough (RCC) in patients with glottic insufficiency (GI) due to vocal fold atrophy.

Retrospective electronic chart review was conducted for patients with a diagnosis of bilateral vocal fold atrophy and RCC undergoing vocal fold augmentation with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC). Patients with vocal fold immobility were excluded, and cough must have been present for at minimum 8weeks. VHI-10, CSI, and RSI scores along with subjective overall patient report of chronic cough improvement were collected.

A total of 28 patients underwent 30 vocal fold augmentation procedures with CMC. All had undergone extensive cough work-up and treatment trials prior to their augmentation procedure. From chart review, 13 overall subjectively reported satisfactory improvement in their cough, 5 reported partial improvement, and 7 reported no improvement in their cough. An uncertain effect on cough was documented in 5 (either patient was uncertain or no mention of cough symptom in the interval chart history note). For those subjects with both pre- and post-augmentation data, mean preaugmentation CSI: 22.08± 6.8 (n = 13); VHI-10: 13.6± 8.9 (n = 18); RSI: 22.4± 7.5 (n = 17). Mean postaugmentation CSI was 20.7± 9.2 (n = 13); VHI-10: 15.2± 8.2 (n = 18); RSI: 21.1± 5.8 (n = 17). Mean pre-post change in CSI was -1.4± 5.1 (P = 0.175, n = 13, range -10 to +6).

Vocal fold augmentation seems to provide subjective cough improvement in some patients with concurrent GI due to vocal fold atrophy and RCC. It can be offered as a diagnostic trial, on which further augmentation may be offered, for patients with persistent cough despite prior work-up and treatment trials. Further controlled prospective studies are needed to identify factors that are predictive of successful cough improvement following vocal fold augmentation, as well as the effect of durable augmentation in those patients who had improvement with a diagnostic trial.