Summary
Objectives
Benign vocal fold lesions which include vocal fold nodules, polyps, cysts and other
lesions often recur after surgery and require additional treatments. This systematic
review of the current literature evaluated the effects of adjunctive therapies in
addition to surgical resection on the recurrence rates of benign vocal fold lesions
in adults.
Study Design
Systematic review.
Methods
A search using relevant keywords in electronic databases was conducted. Extracted
data include author, year of publication, patient demographics, diagnostic approach,
lesion type, surgical procedure, type of adjunctive therapy and the rates of recurrence.
Descriptive statistics were performed on the collected data when appropriate.
Results
Eleven articles were identified with a total of 1085 patients. The total 1101 lesions
studied included 591 (53.7%) polyps, 125 (11.4%) nodules, 146 (13.3%) cysts, 184 (16.7%)
pseudocysts, 19 (1.7%) midfold masses, 18 (1.6%) sulcus vocalis and 18 (1.6%) varices.
Besides surgery, adjunctive therapies included voice therapy, steroid injection and
reflux medication. There were 141 reported lesion recurrences, with an average recurrence
rate of 13.0%. The recurrence rate in studies with adjunctive therapies was 7.14%,
and in studies with no adjunctive therapies it was 24.44%.
Conclusions
Available evidence suggests that adjunctive therapies following surgery are associated
with decreased lesion recurrence rates. However, due to differences in sample size,
inconsistent reporting of lesion characteristics, heterogeneity of adjunctive therapies,
variability in follow-up time across studies, and other factors, it is not possible
to determine exactly which adjunctive therapies are of significant benefit and which
lesion types may benefit the most.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 10, 2022
Accepted:
October 21,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
Funding: None.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
