![]() ![]() This number will undoubtedly rise as the population ages. Background VocalsĪpproximately 7.5 million people in the United States suffer from voice problems, according to the National Institutes of Health. Laryngology is thus becoming a sophisticated, science-driven practice that is employing, and exploring, a range of technological options. Casey Professor of Laryngeal Surgery at HMS, and Robert Hillman, an HMS professor of surgery, the center has generated new ideas by bringing together the work of experts in disciplines from physics and cell biology to chemical engineering and mobile technologies. Co-directed by Steven Zeitels, the Eugene B. ![]() Many of these advances, such as the angiolytic KTP laser used for Egan, have grown from the work of HMS researchers, especially those in the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital, more commonly known as the MGH Voice Center. "I was twenty-four hours away from going down a completely different path,” says Egan.Īs with Egan, patients with voice problems now have more, and better, treatment options. It would likely have cured the cancer, but it also would have brought pain and suffering-and the possibility of permanent voice loss. They had offered him radiation, the standard accepted therapy for this type of cancer. He was fortunate he underwent an innovative type of laser surgery developed at HMS, a surgical option his doctors in North Carolina weren’t aware of. “I understand the importance of having a voice.”Įgan’s voice is fine now, with the deep and resonant tone one might expect from a tall, sturdily built man. ![]() “When my father needed me most, I couldn’t talk,” says Egan. Again, Egan was mute he had not yet regained his voice. A few days after Egan learned he had cancer, his father died. The diagnostic biopsy, taken a few days earlier, had rendered him voiceless, so he had to sit silently as his diagnosis was delivered. Roger Egan remembers the precise date he was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer: March 8, 2012.
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