In managing patients with laryngeal and voice disorders, the laryngologist performs the medical diagnosis and treatment; clinical assessment of vocal function; videostroboscopy; and other endoscopic examinations to assess laryngeal structure and function, ensuring the appropriateness and adequacy of treatment.
The speech pathologist is critical in obtaining baseline measurement and documentation of vocal function, correlating acoustic data with presumed diagnosis to make an independent diagnosis, providing voice therapy, and communicating with laryngologists and other voice professionals.
The program is fortunate to have the Department of Neurology as an important member of the voice team. Neurologists participate in the evaluation of vocal cord paresis, vocal cord paralysis, neuromuscular disease, and movement disorders.
Working together, the neurologists and laryngologists perform laryngeal electromyography and treat patients with laryngeal movement disorders. Consultants including internists, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists may overlap diagnostic and therapeutic function with the other members of the team.
The laryngology program offers a modern voice laboratory that provides reliable and reproductive objective measures of vocal function for diagnosis and comparative analysis of voice data.
Some of the common disorders, which are treated in the laryngology program, include: