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Following a national submission process, the Parker Institute's Dr. Anaïs Rameau, MD MPhil, was awarded a research grant by the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, a.k.a “the Triological Society”, to study the effect of vocal fold augmentation via injection laryngoplasty on cough strength. The study will use physiologic and acoustic measures to analyze cough strength before and after injection augmentation of vocal folds in patient with unilateral vocal fold paralysis.
Cough is a primary defense mechanism for airway protection, and increased cough strength has been directly associated with decreased pneumonia risk. Patient with swallowing dysfunction are at risk of aspiration pneumonia. Pneumonia accounts for 35% of post-stroke death and is a leading cause of mortality in Parkinson’s disease, with estimates between 4 and 30%. Nearly 25% of patients develop aspiration pneumonia within 5 years of treatment with chemo-radiation for head and neck cancer. In this study, Dr. Rameau aims to delineate the indications for injection laryngoplasty in patients with aspiration risk and weakened cough secondary to laryngeal insufficiency, in an effort to decrease aspiration events in this patient population.
This is the second Trioloigcal Society Research Development Grant earned by Institute laryngologists. In 2016, Dr. Babak Sadoughi was awarded the grant to investigate laryngeal neuropathy.
