YASUO HISA, MD; TOSHIYUKI UNO, MD; SHINOBU KOIKE, MD; HITOSHI BAMBA, MD; MASAHIRO SHOGAKI, MD
KYOTO, JAPAN

Although several surgical techniques for the treatment of bilateral laryngeal paralysis have been proposed, pediatric cases are still major problems. Ejnell et al introduced a simple operation for bilateral laryngeal paralysis, and the long-term results of this technique were reported in 1990. An incision of the skin over the thyroid cartilage is made, and 2 needles are inserted through the lamina, above and below the vocal cord. A nylon thread is passed through the needles, and then the needles are withdrawn. The thread thus forms a loop around the vocal cord. The loop is then tightened until the vocal cord is sufficiently lateralized. We have applied this technique to 4 children (ages, 6 to 10 years) with bilateral vocal cord paralysis since 1993 and have obtained satisfactory results. This technique is very useful for the treatment of bilateral laryngeal paralysis of children. Although this technique is simple and has several advantages compared with other procedures, there are some critical points that were not reported by Ejnell et al. In this presentation, we report our results and show some devices we have developed to further improve this technique.