A proposal to extend application of laryngeal electromyography (LEMG)-guided vocal fold injection to treatment of unilateral vocal fold paralysis to enhance clinical popularity of LEMG: response to the paper by G.F. Volk et al.

Excerpt

As faithful readers of the European Archives of Otorhinolaryngology, we read with great interest the article entitled “Laryngeal electromyography: a proposal for guidelines of the European Laryngological Society” by Volk et al. [1]. We would like to compliment the authors and the members of the European Laryngological Society for proposing practical guidelines for laryngeal electromyography (LEMG). The equipment, monitoring, documentation, and interpretation of LEMG for vocal fold immobility were comprehensively reviewed in this paper and we believe this article will be an important reference for both beginners and experts. However, as the authors mentioned, many laryngologists do not routinely use LEMG even though it has been considered as a valuable diagnostic tool for more than 60 years. It is clear that further discussion and innovations will be needed to enhance the clinical popularity of LEMG. Here, we would like to share our ideas about using LEMG-guided vocal fold injection for unilateral vocal fold paralysis (VFP) and also propose this procedure as an innovative implementation of LEMG. …