Office-Based Steroid Injection for Benign Lesions of the Vocal Folds: Case Series and Review of the Literature.

OBJECTIVES

To present the authors' experience on intralesional steroid injection (ILSI) for benign lesions of the vocal folds and a review of the literature.

STUDY

DESIGN

Retrospective chart review.

METHODS

The medical records of patients with vocal folds nodules, polyps, Reinke's edema, laryngitis/localized edema, and vocal fold granuloma who underwent ILSI were reviewed. Disease regression was assessed by reviewing the video recordings of laryngeal endoscopy before and after surgery. Subjective and objective voice outcome measures were compared before and after office-based ILSI.

RESULTS

Forty-seven patients with 81 lesions were included. The most common lesion treated was Reinke's edema followed by vocal fold nodules. All patients who presented for follow-up (n = 37) had partial or complete regression of their disease. When stratified by disease type, vocal fold polyps showed the highest percentage of complete regression (66.7%) followed by vocal fold nodules (65%). The mean voice handicap index-10 (VHI-10) score of the study group dropped from 16.63 ± 6.95 to 6.21 ± 6.09 points (P < 0.001). Patients with vocal fold polyps had the highest drop in the mean VHI-10 score by 16.66 ± 4.73 (P = 0.026). There was no significant difference in the mean acoustic and aerodynamic parameters before and after office-based steroid injection.

CONCLUSIONS

ILSI is an effective treatment modality for benign lesions of the vocal folds leading to partial or complete disease regression and self-reported improvement in voice quality.