Search

Objectives: Hearing loss has been implicated in dysphonia secondary to voice misuse, although the data supporting this claim are scant. Determining the prevalence of hearing loss in patients with dysphonia and correlating it with self-perception of vocal handicap may help clarify the value of audiometry in evaluation of patients with dysphonia. Methods: This is a retrospective chart review of all new voice patients (n = 405) presenting with dysphonia to the primary investigator between 2015 and 2018. Each new patient routinely undergoes audiometric and voice objective analyses. Main outcomes measured include prevalence, severity of hearing loss, and voice handicap index-10 (VHI-10). Results: Of the 405 subjects reviewed, mean age was 49.0 years (SD = 17.4). 60.7% of subjects were female and 39.3% male. Patients with hearing loss defined as >25 dB in worse ear with pure tone average (PTA) thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 kHz (PTA-S) accounted for 18% of the total cohort. The prevalence of previously undiagnosed hearing loss in this cohort was 13.1% (53 of 405 subjects). Of these subjects, 62.3% (33 subjects) reported no perception of hearing loss while 37.7% (20 subjects) suspected they had some hearing loss, yet never sought evaluation. Only increased PTA-S, speech discrimination, Reflux Symptom Index, and female gender demonstrated a significant relationship with VHI-10 when analyzed with multivariate linear regression analysis. Conclusions: The prevalence of hearing loss in patients presenting with dysphonia in this cohort is similar to normative population data. This study has also demonstrated that the majority of these patients did not perceive any hearing loss. The reasons behind this may be a result of or associated with the patients' dysphonia. Furthermore, clinicians should consider performing audiometric evaluation in patients with abnormal VHI-10 scores in the appropriate clinical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case of a 14-year-old woman with a 3-year history of severe itching sensation and intermittent pain in her left parotid gland when drinking fluids. Based on fine needle aspiration (FNA), she has glandular acini with benign features, multinucleated giant cells, and inflammation. She was diagnosed with dermoid cyst in the parotid gland and was recommended to undergo complete surgical resection.

The article presents a case of a 2-month-old boy who was rushed to the emergency department due to dry cough, worsening inspiratory stridor, and suprasternal retractions. He was diagnosed with laryngomalacia (LM) with coincidental secondary airway lesions (SAL) and underwent excisional biopsy. Also cited are some common SALs like tracheomalacia, bronchomalacia, and vocal fold paralysis.

The article presents the case of a 14-year-old man who was rushed to an outside emergency department (ED) due to odynophagia two weeks after starting penicillin to treat his intermittent sore throat. Based on computed tomography, he has bilaterally enlarged palatine tonsils with rim-enhancing fluid collections. He was diagnosed with bilateral peritonsillar abscess (PTA) or quinsy and was prescribed amoxicillin-clavulanate.

The article presents the case of a 56-year-old, nonsmoking male patient presented with a history of progressively hoarse, weak voice and frequent throat clearing, and was revealed to have mild fullness in the left false vocal folds (VF), left VF paresis and bowing, and incomplete glottic closure with no discrete mass lesions. Topics discussed include results of the patient's final pathologic analysis, and definition of heterotopic salivary gland tissue.

The article presents two cases of patients that illustrate experience with thyroplasty after the procedures, arytenoidectomy and posterior cordotomy Topics covered include the causes and the other less common etiologies of bilateral vocal fold immobility (BFVI), the clinical manifestations of BFVI and the findings of the strobovideolaryngoscopy performed on a 60-year-old male who presented secondary to bilateral arytenoid fixation 4 years after undergoing the two procedures.