Wound Healing and Special Considerations for the Professional and Performing Voice

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the wound healing process of the vocal fold following phonomicrosurgery to remove benign vocal fold lesions in professional voice users. Understanding this process and the risk of developing scar tissue at the injury site is important for treatment of these individuals. This review also highlights special considerations during the postinjury rehabilitation period and the unique vocal loading tasks and needs of performing voice users. The goal of this article is to provide clinical tools for wound healing education to nonvoice-specialized speech-language pathologists to inform their rehabilitation of the professional and performing voice user. Implications intrinsic to vocal fold physiology and the stages of wound healing necessitate the avoidance of scar tissue with a rehabilitation plan tailored to the unique vocal loading demands of professional and performing voice users. There is a need to develop specific rehabilitation protocols that are genre-specific to aid in the individual treatment of the elite vocal athlete.