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Adding office-based or awake laryngeal procedures to your practice is possible, and, once incorporated, it could be a big benefit, panelists said in a session at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, held in Dallas.
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November 2015“It’s potentially good for the patients,” said Richard McHugh, MD, PhD, co-director of the University of Alabama Birmingham Voice and Aerodigestive Center. “The patients might like it better and, potentially, it’s good for us.”
Adam Klein, MD, associate professor at the Emory Voice Center in Atlanta, said physicians could consider performing certain procedures in the endoscopy suite, rather than in the operating room (OR). Doing this frees up OR time, and it’s also an opportunity for physicians to develop new skills, as well as improve patient quality of life. “As you do more awake procedures, you find more applications for it,” Dr. Klein said. The suites generally already have, or can be fairly easily equipped with, what is needed for awake laryngeal procedures, he said, and the rooms are a little larger.