The Management of Voice Disorders

Abstract

There has been a tremendous growth of interest in the human voice and its disorders during the past decade. This has led to the development of a variety of 'voice labs' or 'voice clinics' that are able to offer unique interdisciplinary assessment and treatment facilities. To cover aJlthe bases, the voice care team requires input frorn laryngology, speech-language pathology, psychiatry, neurology, voice science, music pedagogy, biomedical engineering and other peripheral fields. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of voice dinics there have been a number of books written that address our subject from different professional perspectives. These tend to be multi-authored works that draw on expertise from around the world, such as alaryngologist frorn New York, a speech pathologist from Toronto, etc. All are coJleagues that share similar interests but never actually share the management problems of the same patients. This book has been planned and written by the members ofa single 'voice clinic'iIt is our hope that it willreflect a singleness of direction and purpose in the way it presents our approach to a complex topic. Because of our regular interactive meetings over problem patients inwhich we debate the meaning of our observations, the evolution of etiological dassification systems, and the rationale for particular therapy approaches, we feel that we have become a team that is greater than the sum of its parts, and that there is value in sharing our cumulative thoughts with others. This is not simply a laryngology text for laryngologists.