Abstract
A total of 117 patients with laryngeal palsy seen by us during a 6-year period from July 1984 through June 1990 were reviewed. The palsy was recognized to be due to malignancy in 31.6%, idiopathic in nature in 21.4% and of postoperative type in 24.8% of these patients. An impressive and characteristic feature of this series was an increased relative proportion of palsies caused by malignant tumors and a decreased proportion of those of idiopathic type as compared to the previous series encountered during a 5-year period from July 1979 through June 1984. Of all malignant tumors identified as causative of laryngeal palsy, lung tumors were most frequent, followed by tumors of the thyroid or esophagus. Among 14 cases of head and neck malignancies there were those in which the laryngealpalsy was caused by thyroid tumors, jugular foramen syndrome or metastatic tumors of the neck from unknown primary lesions. In most instances initial symptoms were hoarseness and a tumor mass in the neck, while in some other instances hoarseness was the only initial manifestation or dysphagia was also present. The present study points to the necessity for the physician to keep malignant tumor always in mind as a likely cause of laryngeal palsy, as already emphasized by us in our previous study and also by other authors.
