Revision Thyroplasty

Abstract

To document surgical techniques for performing a revision thyroplasty operation and to describe the subjective and objective results of these operations, I undertook a retrospective review of all patients who have undergone thyroplasty in my practice. I identified patients who required revision of a previous thyroplasty and evaluated preoperative and postoperative video and audio analyses of the voice. I identified the surgical steps necessary for successful completion of a revision operation and noted any special findings made at surgery. Charts were reviewed and tabulated for reasons for failure of the first operation, efficacy of the second surgical approach, specific anatomic findings made at revision surgery, and types of surgery available for revision. Of 625 total thyroplasties in 331 patients, revision operations accounted for 61 operations in 48 patients. All thyroplasty operations were found to be revisable or reversible. Objective voice analysis for 35 operations in 32 patients revealed a statistically significant improvement in shimmer in women, and in harmonics-to-noise ratio in all patients. Subjective voice improvement occurred in 80% of patients after revision surgery. I conclude that revision thyroplasty is possible with all thyroplasty types, giving significant improvement in both shimmer (women) and harmonics-to-noise ratio (all patients). Although most voices are still abnormal on postoperative objective voice analysis, 80% of patients are subjectively improved.