Voice Loss (Part Two)

In the first part of this article, we understand how our voice is produced, and in simple terms, how we lose our voice. Losing our voice is a problem for anyone as we are always communicating our wishes, dreams, love and needs to others.

So what can we do if we lose our voice? Firstly, we should not panic as common things happen commonly, and the commonest cause by far, is an acute viral laryngitis. The swelling from acute laryngitis is usually maximal at three days, after which the swelling subsides gradually, and the voice gradually returns to normal. During the inflamed phase, sufferers are best advised not to use their voice, as continuing voice use could damage and permanently scar the vocal cord lining. This scarring could result in a permanent hoarse voice by impairing the movement of the mucosal lining over the vocal ligaments.

Losing one’s voice is not unusual at all and most voices recover very quickly. If our voice doesn’t return to normal and you remain hoarse beyond three weeks, medical attention to make a diagnosis and to prevent long term irreversible damage would be recommended. Your ENT Surgeon can easily inspect your voice box by performing a flexible endoscopic examination of the larynx. So what conditions can cause chronic loss of voice that can be seen by endoscopy?

A growth on one or both vocal cords can prevent optimal closure of the cords. Excess air then leaks through the gap and voice production is impaired in terms of quality as well as intensity of the voice. Commonly the early formation of vocal cord nodules is the cause. Two non-cancerous thickening of the vocal cords on exactly opposite vocal cord surfaces prevent the cords from coming together well. With the leak, the voice is lost, and we try even harder to produce a voice by speaking louder. This means that the nodules can get bigger, and the hoarseness continues. Treatment here is primarily by speech therapy to re-educate the user how to use their voice better like a singer. If the nodules are too large and /or speech therapy has not worked, then phonosurgery to trim away the nodules may be necessary. If a growth is seen only on one vocal cord, then early surgery may be necessary to exclude cancer. Here the lesion is examined close up, excised and sent for testing. If it is cancerous, then follow up treatment protocols will be advised. However if the lesion looks like a cyst or a polyp under close up endoscopic examination during surgery, the lesion is removed with gentle and careful preservation of the vocal cord lining. This is called phonosurgery and requires great skill. The removal of the lesion is both diagnostic (as we sent the lesion for testing to know what it is) as well as also therapeutic (as the hoarse voice is treated as well)

A total loss of one’s voice is a catastrophe. This is unusual but it happens when one of the two vocal cords is paralysed. They are unable to meet in the midline, the gap is left wide open and therefore no turbulence or voice can be made. The cause here is damage to the nerve that moves the vocal cord. This nerve travels from our brain, down our neck pass our thyroid gland and even as far down as our lung, before turning around to innervate our voice box, one on each side. Cancer in the neck, lung cancer, strokes, penetrating trauma and surgery to the neck and thyroid are the usual causes that damage this nerve. If this is the case and recovery is not forthcoming, the voice can be improved by surgical treatment that pushes the affected cord to the center to a “closed” position. By re-siting the affected vocal cord to the midline “closed” position, surgeons allow the voice to be reproduced again when the normally functioning opposite vocal cord moves and easily close the gap. Rushing air from the lung re-vibrates the cords once again, turbulence of the air is produced and a voice is regenerated again. This particular treatment is important for these paralyzed vocal cords sufferers, as aside from a more normal voice, upper body strength is improved with an improved cough to maintain a clean and sputum free lung.

Remember, our voice is important and most loss of voice conditions are mild, short-lasting with full recovery. A persistent hoarse voice should not be regarded as normal as diagnosis is easily made with endoscopy in a clinic setting. Timely treatment ensures a good quality strong voice either by medication, speech therapy, surgery or all a combination of treatment to suit the problem.

Dr Gordon Soo, The ENTific Centre





Reference: Entific.com.hk/voice-loss-treatment.html
The information aims to provide educational purpose only. Anyone reading it should consult ENT Specialists before considering treatment and should not rely on the information above.

Voice Loss (Part One)

Humans are social beings. We communicate with others using our voice as well as body language. So it naturally becomes a problem when we lose our voice.

We make our voice in our larynx. Here sit two ligaments called vocal cords, that are joined together in the front and sit apart at the back, like an open “V”. The vocal cords are covered with a soft mucosa lining, and lie horizontally immediately above our windpipe, acting as two guards protecting our airway.

So how do these two vocal cords make a voice? We need two things to occur for sound to be made. First the two vocal cords are brought together by a muscle, and at the same time, air from our lung is expelled through these closed cords. The air passing through our cords cause the mucosa covering to vibrate, and hence a sound (voice) is made. 

The pitch of this sound, our voice, is changed by other muscles tightening or relaxing the tension of the vocal ligaments. When the vocal ligaments are tightened, the voice becomes higher pitched, like when we strum a tightly stretched guitar string to create a higher note. For a lower tone sound, the tension is reduced, and a lower, more bass voice is produced. The voice of children, adult males and adult females also vary due to the size of the vocal cords and the “laryngeal” box that it sits in. 

A shorter vocal cord in a smaller box as in children produce a shriller, high tone voice whilst at the other extreme, a longer vocal cord in a bigger box of an adult male produces a deeper voice. Here the analogy is that of a child ukulele as compared to an adult double bass. The female adult voice is somewhere in between. So that is how the voice is made. Speech and language which strings sounds together to form words is different. Speech that form words of what we want to say, in the form of phonetics as well as the tone in tonal languages like Putonghua and Cantonese, comes from movements of our tongue above our voice box.

So how do we lose our voice? The commonest cause is an acute inflammation of our larynx (acute laryngitis) e.g. when we catch the flu. The lining of the vocal cords become swollen, inflamed and stiff and the inflammation causes pain when we try to speak. As air passes through the cords, the vibration is impaired. Making a sound is difficult as well as painful, and the voice changes to a very hoarse rasp or total loss altogether.

Another way that voice production can be impaired is if there is a growth on a vocal cord that prevents both the vocal cords from coming together perfectly. Conditions that could do this are e.g. cancer of the vocal cords commonly seen in smokers. These growths tents open the gap between the cords, and allows air to leak through the gap, making voice production inefficient at best, and sometimes impossible at worst.

The ultimate voice loss occurs when the vocal cords cannot come together. This is definitely an uncommon condition. We need both vocal cords to vibrate to make a sound. When one of the vocal cords cannot be drawn close, the gap between the vocal cord is too wide for turbulence of the air, and therefore sound, to made by the passing air. It is the same as when we try to whistle. We can only make a whistle with “closed” lips and not an “open” mouth. Here the reasons why a cord cannot “close” is usually due to damage to the nerve that supplies the “closing” muscle of that vocal cord.

To lose one’s voice is not unusual at all and most voices recover very quickly. However, a persistent hoarse voice or loss of voice for more than three weeks is not normal. If this continues, further medical attention for a diagnosis would normally be advised.

 .......cont'l

Dr Gordon Soo, The ENTific Centre

 

 

Reference: Entific.com.hk/voice-loss.html

The information aims to provide educational purpose only. Anyone reading it should consult ENT Specialists before considering treatment and should not rely on the information above.

鼻竇炎的病因

透過上期文章，相信大家已知道鼻竇炎的治療方法，但預防勝於治療，今期將解說鼻竇炎的病因，希望讀者對此病有更多的了解。

鼻竇是鼻腔旁邊及頭顱骨內的多處空間，位於前額內的空間稱為「額竇」，而面額內的上額骨中的空間名為「上頜竇」。另外，鼻樑骨後有很多細小空間，它們分別稱為「篩竇」及「蝶竇」。鼻竇的出入口全部與鼻腔相連，在正常情況下鼻竇的分泌物會引流到鼻腔中，然後再流到後面的鼻咽，經吞嚥到達腸胃。

鼻竇炎是泛旨鼻竇黏膜有發炎情況，主要分為急性和慢性鼻竇炎兩大類。其分別在於病徵持續期長與短，通常以三個月為分界線，若持續時間少於三個月屬於急性，而多於三個月以上則為慢性。此分類法基於兩者的病因、病徵、治療的方法及治療的效果都有所不同。

急性鼻竇炎成因大多由感冒引起。當上呼吸道受到感染時，鼻膜會出現腫脹。此時，有可能導致鼻竇出口阻塞，影響鼻竇暢通，令鼻竇內的分泌物無法正常排出，再加上細菌侵入，引發鼻竇炎。其次是因分隔兩邊鼻腔的鼻中隔骨偏斜到其中一方，使鼻竇出口阻塞，引致上述情況。

此外，因蛀牙而導致急性鼻竇炎亦是一個經常被遺忘的病因。事實上，牙齒(特別是大牙的牙根) 跟上頜竇的底部非常接近，甚至有些人天生的牙根已輕微伸延至鼻竇內。因此，若有蛀牙或細菌感染時，很大機會會擴散至上頜竇，引致急性鼻竇炎。還有，急性鼻竇炎通常是單邊鼻竇受到影響，患者會單邊鼻塞，鼻涕量多、鼻水倒流及輕微流鼻血情況。另外，不同鼻竇發炎其疼痛的位置亦不同，如上頜竇發炎，臉頰會出現痛楚；而額竇發炎則會出現額頭痛。

至於慢性鼻竇炎通常是兩邊同時受到影響，患者出現兩邊鼻塞、流鼻涕及味覺可能受到影響，但一般情況下，嚴重性較急性為低。目前為止，慢性鼻竇炎的主因仍未確定，但有多份醫學研究顯示，慢性鼻竇炎跟鼻腔內局部性敏感反應有關。



耳鼻喉專科 李立言醫生





資料來源：www.entific.com.hk
以上所提供的資訊僅作為教育及參考用途，如果你有任何醫療問題，
應向自己的耳鼻喉專科醫生查詢，而不應單倚賴以上提供的資料。

甲狀腺舌骨囊腫

人體的甲狀腺是源於舌根位置的軟組織，這些軟組織在胚胎形成時由舌根轉移至喉嚨甲狀腺軟骨，此轉移管道通常會被身體吸收並於胚胎的第10週時消失。若它沒有消失，便會殘留在頸部並形成甲狀腺舌骨囊腫 (Thyroglossal Duct Cyst，簡稱TGDC)。雖然它屬於先天性的缺陷，但往往是在後天發現，亦可發生於任何年齡及性別的人士身上，而男女的發病率比例相若。

甲狀腺舌骨囊腫一般位於頸部上方的中線位置，其質地柔軟、呈圓形及邊緣界線清楚。因囊腫與舌根相連，因此它會隨著舌頭活動時而移動。

最常見的症狀是頸部中線位置腫脹，使患者在吞嚥時感到不適。如囊腫受到感染而發炎，便會有疼痛及形成膿瘡。大部份的甲狀腺舌骨囊腫均屬良性，然而亦有部份囊腫病變成惡性腫瘤，形成癌症。

若懷疑患上甲狀腺舌骨囊腫，醫生除利用超聲波掃描外，亦會進行穿刺抽取細胞檢查(Fine Needle Aspiration)，以排除其他疾病(如脂肪瘤、淋巴結或惡性腫瘤)的可能性。此外，醫生亦會建議病人進行切除手術，避免囊腫持續擴大, 受到感染或增加病變的機會。若囊腫已受到感染，病人需要在手術前先進行抗生素治療。

治療方面，於1920年首次出現名為Sistrunk 程序的切除手術，現今已成為外科醫生處理甲狀舌骨囊腫的標準手術方法。在此以前，因大家對甲狀腺舌骨囊腫與胚胎學的形成認知不足，手術後的復發率較高。Sistrunk 程序除了切除囊腫外，也涉及切除甲狀舌管和伴隨的舌骨中段，醫生均會一併切除，以減低復發的機會。

這是由於甲狀舌骨囊腫連結甲狀舌骨管道，甲狀舌骨管道必須一併清除以防止囊腫的復發，然而甲狀舌骨管道在解剖位置上與舌骨有密切的關係，試圖去將甲狀舌骨管道與舌骨分離，在技術上是相當困難。因此切除一部分舌根的軟組織連同舌骨的中央部分及囊腫，似乎是將甲狀舌骨囊腫連同其管道一併清除的最好方式。



耳鼻喉專科 陳慶生醫生



資料來源：www.entific.com.hk
以上所提供的資訊僅作為教育及參考用途，如果你有任何醫療問題，
應向自己的耳鼻喉專科醫生查詢，而不應單倚賴以上提供的資料。