Duration of Clinical Response After In‐Office Steroid Injection for Vocal Fold Scar

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess the duration of clinical response after in‐office vocal fold steroid injection (VFSI) for vocal fold (VF) scar.MethodsDemographic and clinical data for in‐office VFSI occurring from 2017 to 2020 were collected. Two Speech‐Language Pathologists (SLPs) used perceptual evaluation of voice and functional scales to evaluate blinded voice and laryngovideostroboscopy (LVS) samples collected pre‐ and post‐injection across multiple timepoints.ResultsBlinded SLP ratings were used for 30 individual VFs undergoing initial injection in 18 patients. Persistent improvement in voice past 6 months was seen in 57% of patients after VFSI. Multiple measures of voice and amplitude, percent vibrating tissue, and closed phase predominance significantly improved at various follow‐up timepoints on average.ConclusionAccounting for patient heterogeneity and disease progression, in‐office VFSI for VF scar is associated with sustained improvement in a subset of patients. Approximately half of patients can expect to experience a lasting improvement in voice. Future studies of larger scale are required to identify patient factors associated with long‐term benefit.Level of Evidence4 Laryngoscope, 133:2333–2339, 2023