Evaluation of alloderm and autologous skin in quadriceps muscles of rats for injection laryngoplasty.

There are three surgical methods utilized in treating glottic insufficiency: laryngeal framework surgery, reinnervation procedures and injection medialization. The trend towards the use of less invasive procedures led us to focus on injection medialization in this study. The advantages of vocal fold injection are that the procedure requires no external incisions, is easily applicable and can be applied in an office setting. Furthermore, injection medialization is applicable in cases of atrophic vocal fold and vocal fold scarring. In developing injection medialization, laryngologists are in search of an "ideal material" that should be biocompatible and resistant to resorption. In the initial applications of this method, synthetic materials were used. In the past 2 decades, however, researchers have become more and more interested in the advantages of biological materials. In our animal study, we investigated the behavior of AlloDerm and autologous skin injected in the quadriceps muscles of rats. The materials were easily injected. Histopathological and volumetric analyses were done; the rats were sacrificed the 1st day post-injection and subsequently in the 1st, 3rd and 6th months. AlloDerm's absorption levels were generally high, and its inflammation and fibrosis levels were low and medium. In the 6th month, histiocytic foreign body reaction was observed. The mean graft yield was 4.5%. Autologous skin results for inflammation and fibrosis levels were similar to those of AlloDerm. However, no foreign body reaction was observed in AS injected muscle. The graft yield was 74.6%. The growth of keratin cysts had an effect on the results of the graft yield.