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an office procedure does not preclude subsequent operative
intervention. Still, patients with advanced airway compromise
or concerning medical comorbidities are not appropriate for
treatment in an office setting, and some patients will demon-
strate recalcitrant anxiety to these procedures. In our study,
all patients without an obvious airway concern were at least
offered an office-based procedure; we do not, however,
include patients in the present study who were not amenable
to office treatment due to the above limitations.
Surgical lasers fall into 2 broad categories: cutting/ablating
lasers and photoangiolytic lasers.
22
Photoangiolytic lasers,
including KTP and PDL, selectively target hemoglobin and
are therefore most often used to manage highly vascular
lesions. Reinke’s edema is characterized in part by vascular
congestion and stasis within the superficial lamina propria.
2,23
While the exact mechanism of the laser-tissue interaction in
benign lesions remains under investigation, it is theorized that
photoangiolytic laser energy is effective in improving polypoid
degeneration by ablating damaged microvasculature within the
SLP, ultimately inducing regression of nonvascular pathologic
tissue.
24
It has been proposed that localized energy delivery
causes a nonspecific inflammatory response, leading to selec-
tive and time-dependent expression of inflammatory cytokines
such as transforming growth factor beta 1 and cyclooxygenase
2,
25,26
as well as procollagen/collagenase genes such as matrix
metalloproteinases.
26,27
These changes are thought to result in
favorable alterations in tissue remodeling. As such, in contrast
to classical surgical interventions designed to physically
remove excessive tissue, laser therapy is thought to induce a
favorable biochemical shift—a biological solution for a biolo-
gical problem.
In our procedures, energy delivery is titrated to a point of
superficial blanching of tissues. No immediate reduction of
tissue mass is seen; instead, functional improvement is
expected after a period of tissue remodeling. In our study,
an average of 132 J was delivered per procedure; however,
optimal laser settings and energy titration end points remain
undefined. Efforts are underway to characterize these para-
meters. A recent study examined outcomes for Reinke’s
edema as a function of laser parameters and initial treatment
effects; the average energy applied was 157 J delivered over
a 0.369-second exposure time, and voice outcomes were
favorable.
28
In an effort to standardize measurement, a vali-
dated classification schema was recently proposed to estab-
lish a consistent means for measuring response to the KTP
laser.
24,29
The present study adds to this growing body of
work beginning to evaluate the relationship between amount
of energy delivered and treatment outcome.
The patients in our series underwent comprehensive voice
analyses before and after completing an intervention, allowing
for detailed evaluation of treatment effect. Acoustic measures
improved significantly; patients demonstrated improved fre-
quency range due to a higher posttreatment maximum funda-
mental frequency, representing an improvement in the classic
‘‘low pitched voice’’ reported by many patients. Percent jitter
also improved after treatment, perhaps reflecting improved
vocal fold symmetry after tissue remodeling. Changes in
aerodynamic parameters were less pronounced. MPT, laryngeal
resistance, mean airflow rate, and peak pressure did not signifi-
cantly improve following treatment. This may in part be influ-
enced by selection bias, as patients with significant airway
compromise—and thus, likely, the most abnormal pretreatment
aerodynamic profiles—were not offered office procedures.
Phonation threshold pressure did, however, improve after treat-
ment. Finally, our patients demonstrated improvement in all
subcategories of the Voice Handicap Index—functional, physi-
cal, and emotional. This perhaps more than other measures sug-
gests the utility of these procedures.
Some aspects of the present study may require clarifica-
tion. First, some individuals showed worsening of certain
voice measures after treatment. For example, 1 patient
showed increased phonation threshold pressure and airway
resistance after a second laser treatment, and 3 patients had
decreased MPT after treatment. Also, note that 6 patients
underwent multiple procedures. The decision for repeat
treatment was based on clinical assessment of recurrent or
persistent Reinke’s edema with ongoing dysphonia rather
than on objective voice data.
While unsedated endoscopic procedures are possible in
the majority of patients, anatomic and physiologic limita-
tions as well as anxiety-related factors will represent a bar-
rier in some patients. Of the 25 procedures presented here, 5
were truncated due to patient intolerance. All patients were
active smokers at the time of treatment; it is possible that
reactive airway physiology contributed to this high rate of
intolerance. Our database did not include which patients
ultimately underwent operative interventions, but it is likely
that some did. Given this limitation, we are unable to assess
voice changes related to subsequent surgical intervention
and therefore cannot comment on voice outcomes in these
patients. Importantly, no patients required emergent airway
intervention during or immediately after the procedure, had
significant bleeding, or required hospitalization immediately
following the procedure. As such, office-based laser treat-
ments in our series were safe.
The present study has several important limitations. As a
retrospective analysis without a control group, we cannot
determine whether the changes in voice parameters
observed after treatment were actually due to the interven-
tion or simply reflect normal temporal variation of the dis-
ease. Second, although this is the largest series of patients
undergoing photoangiolytic laser therapy for Reinke’s
edema, our sample size is still modest. Further, complete
data sets were not available for all patients. This reduced
our effective sample size for the pre- and posttreatment
analyses and precluded detailed analysis of parameters over
longer periods. Finally, our data set did not provide a stan-
dardized means for follow-up; as such, patients who devel-
oped complications following the conclusion of their
procedure may not be included.
As office-based procedures become increasingly more
common, there are many points for further study. Definition
of laser settings to optimize tissue remodeling remains an
important and active area of investigation. Prospective
Koszewski et al
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