One hundred and forty-three patients with vocal cord paralysis, who were referred to our clinic for the past 5 years (1979-1984), were reviewed. Sixty percents of patients were male. The number of the left, the right and the bilateral recurrent nerve paralysis were 84, 49 and 10 respectively.
The cause of 50 cases was surgical operation around the vagus and recurrent nerves. Malignant tumors were found in 35 cases. Twelve cases were caused by intracranial lesions. However, since the etiology of 40 cases was unknown, these were supposed to be idiopathic.
Among 35 cases of malignancies, lung cancers with metastatic lesions were found in 16 cases. Thirteen of those had left vocal paralysis.
Although some cases were diagnosed to be idiopathic at the first examinations, lung and mediastinal malignant tumors were finally found. From this study, it can be concluded that CT scan of the lung (particularly the region of aortopulmonary window) has great clinical value to diagnose correctly. We advocate to use CT scan especially in elder persons.
