A Simple Guide to Dysphonia, Diagnosis, Treatment and Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Dysphonia, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Dysphonia is a medical terminology indicating disorder of voice.

It is the impairment in the ability to produce voice sounds using the vocal (phonation) system.

It is also termed hoarseness of voice.

It is different from dysarthria which indicates dysfunction in the muscles needed to produce speech.

Dysphonia is a phonation disorder.

The dysphonic voice can be hoarse or extremely breathy, harsh, or rough, but some kind of phonation is still possible in contrast with the more serious aphonia where phonation is impossible

Alterations to the voice can happen suddenly or gradually over time.

The voice can be reported as hoarse, rough, raspy, strained, weak, breathy, or gravely.

There may be voice breaks where the voice totally stops or breaks down.

There may be pitch alterations, either higher or lower for the patient.

The patient may have a total loss of voice for duration of time as well.

Occasionally the patient will complain of pain with speaking or singing and difficulty projecting the voice.

Most often, dysphonia is produced by an abnormality with the vocal cords (also termed vocal folds) but there can be other causes from disorders with airflow from the lungs or anomalies with the structures of the throat close to the vocal cords.

In both children and adults, chronic aphonia (inability to produce voiced sound) may form which necessitates medical attention in order to diagnose what is causing this.

When dysphonia happens, rest is normally advised, but if the disorder lasts more than two weeks, a doctor should be seen to exclude the presence of any serious injury and to prevent dysphonia from developing into chronic aphonia, leading to a total loss of voice.

When dysphonia has developed, either from overusing the voice too much or infections and viruses, rest, anti-inflammatory medicines or depending on the case, speech therapy will be required.

There are two forms of dysphonia based on duration of disease:

1. Acute dysphonia - normally self-limited and resolves with rest and symptomatic treatment.

2. Chronic dysphonia - more complex since it can have multiple causes: from tumor lesions to congenital anomalies.

Types of Dysphonia

There are two general classifications or types of dysphonia.
Organic
Functional

Organic Dysphonia

The organic type involves situations where there is some sort of impediment to the function of the vocal cords, such as an infection or injury to the chords as the result of an accident.

Organic voice disorders fall into two groups:

1.Structural disorders involve something physically incorrect with the mechanism, often involving tissue or fluids of the vocal folds.
2.Neurogenic disorders are produced by a disorder in the nervous system.

Organic dysphonia may happen due to
Laryngitis (Acute: viral, bacterial) – (Chronic: smoking, GERD, LPR)
Neoplasm (Premalignant: dysplasia) – (Malignant: Squamous cell carcinoma)
Trauma (Iatrogenic: surgery, intubation) – (Accidental: blunt, penetrating, thermal)
Endocrine (Hypothyroidism, hypogonadism)
Hematological (Amyloidosis)
Iatrogenic (inhaled corticosteroids)

Functional Dysphonia

Functional dysphonia involves circumstances where there is a form of psychogenic component, or a misuse of the vocal cords.

It may be
Psychogenic
Vocal misuse
Idiopathic

Diagnosis is based on the patient’s presentation and the sound of the patient’s voice.

Speech therapy is the main treatment for dysphonia.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Dysphonia
Chapter 2 Cause
Chapter 3 Symptoms
Chapter 4 Diagnosis
Chapter 5 Treatment
Chapter 6 Prognosis
Chapter 7 Aphasia
Chapter 8 Dyslexia
Epilogue

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Apr 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005716806

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

A

Simple

Guide

To

Dysphonia,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2022 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Dysphonia, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Dysphonia)

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiography account of my journey as a medical student to family doctor on my other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiography account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

My diagnosis and treatment capability has improved tremendously from my continued education.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

What is Dysphonia?

Dysphonia is a medical terminology indicating disorder of voice.

It is the impairment in the ability to produce voice sounds using the vocal (phonation) system.

It is also termed hoarseness of voice.

It is different from dysarthria which indicates dysfunction in the muscles needed to produce speech.

Dysphonia is a phonation disorder.

The dysphonic voice can be hoarse or extremely breathy, harsh, or rough, but some kind of phonation is still possible in contrast with the more serious aphonia where phonation is impossible

Alterations to the voice can happen suddenly or gradually over time.

The voice can be reported as hoarse, rough, raspy, strained, weak, breathy, or gravely.

There may be voice breaks where the voice totally stops or breaks down.

There may be pitch alterations, either higher or lower for the patient.

The patient may have a total loss of voice for duration of time as well.

Occasionally the patient will