Abstract
We investigated the medical records of 77 sulcus vocalis cases from January 2006 to Jun 2010 at the voice outpatient clinics of National Center for Global Health and Medicine.
A retrospective review of the medical records of these patients was conducted. We evaluated age, sex, GRBAS scale, maximal phonation time (MPT), and mean airflow rate (MFR) during comfortable phonation to assess the physiological characteristics of sulcus vocalis.
61 of the 77 (78%) patients had the following treatments performed once or several times: collagen injection (51 cases), fat injection (12 cases), fascia transplantation (2 cases), and voice training (7 cases). These procedures were often repeated or combined. In the collagen and fat injection groups, MPT and MFR data improved significantly after treatment; whereas, R (Roughness) improved only in the fat injection group.
The treatment method was decided on according to the symptom levels and depth of “Sulcus”. Mild cases underwent collagen injection, voice training or observation but severe cases often needed fat injection or fascia transplantation. At present, we can only reduce symptoms but cannot remove “Sulcus” nor return it to a normal membrane. It is necessary to continue the examination of the treatment methods going forward.
