Injection laryngoplasty (IL) performed in the office with the patient awake yields similar results as when it is performed with the patient asleep, researchers have found in a case-control study.
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October 2009Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta found that both awake and asleep procedures produce about the same improvements in patients’ voices. Another key finding, however, was that there were more complications found in awake procedures than in those performed with the patient asleep, although those complications were not considered major and were self-limiting, they said.
That prompted researchers to conclude that patients who need the utmost precision-such as voice professionals-should probably have the procedure done in the operating room under general anesthesia.