Abstract
The authors performed thyroplasty type I surgery on six patients as the treatment of hoarseness due to unilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy and followed them for more than six months. Four patients were satisfied with their results. Three of these four virtually proved excellent phonatory functions and remained stable. The other, although his paralyzed vocal fold was in the upper position, showed a prominent improvement of his voice. His phonatory function got slightly worse six to eight months postoperatively, but his voice remained good enough in his daily life. Two patients were not satisfied with the results. In one patient, a cartilage window was opened at the higher level and thus taking more time for medialization caused tissue edema. Since the paralyzed vocal fold of the other was in a relatively high position, he underwent arytenoid adduction eight months after the first operation and his voice became normal.
