Analysis of Information Needs Among Patients With Neurological Voice Disorders Treated With Laryngeal Botulinum Toxin...

Patients' understanding of pending procedures and expectations for outcomes is closely tied to overall satisfaction and health-related quality of life. This is particularly true for individuals undergoing laryngeal botulinum toxin (BTX) injections for laryngeal dystonia and vocal tremor. Recent findings indicate that the quality of preprocedure education significantly influences patient perceptions of treatment success. This study aims to explore and identify the expectations and needs of patients with laryngeal dystonia and/or vocal tremor undergoing BTX treatment. Our goal is to provide highly targeted education and enhance pre and post treatment informational counseling.

A cross-sectional survey of adult patients receiving BTX for laryngeal dystonia or vocal tremor at the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Voice and Swallowing Center was conducted between December 2024 and March 2025. The 32-item survey assessed preprocedure informational counseling, perceptions of treatment effects, and patient experience with their providers and educational delivery through multiple-choice and free-text questions. To understand the patient experience, continuous measures were summarized using medians and (25th, 75th) percentiles. The categorical data were similarly assimilated using frequencies and proportions.

There were 48 surveys completed. The mean age of patients was 72 years (SD = 9.4) and 44 were women (86%). Among the respondents, 38 (75%) were diagnosed with laryngeal dystonia, four (8%) with vocal tremor, and nine (18%) with both laryngeal dystonia and vocal tremor. Of the patients diagnosed with laryngeal dystonia, 45 (88%) were diagnosed with adductor type and two (4%) with abductor type. The mean number of BTX injections previously received by patients at the time of completion was 32 (range, 2-88 injections). Most patients reported adequate understanding of treatment processes, and satisfaction with their care was high overall: 90% were satisfied with the information provided by their laryngologist (n = 43), and 80% were satisfied with guidance from their speech-language pathologist (n = 33).

Our findings suggest that a multimodal approach to patient education, coupled with structured, interdisciplinary informational counseling before and after laryngeal BTX treatment, is associated with high levels of patient satisfaction and perceived understanding of the treatment process. These findings support existing evidence that patient education and expectation management significantly improve procedural outcomes.