Investigation of the relationship between vocal fold tension and electrical stimulation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in a canine model

UCLA are developing a new surgical technique for people who are suffering from the total loss of voice. The cause of this disease is often due to the total or partial paralysis of what is popularly called the 'vocal cord'. Our interest is in the nerve that stimulates the muscles that stretch the 'vocal cord', which then allows us to vibrate our 'voice box' and speak.Another surgical technique is currently in use to treat people suffering from spasmodic dysphonia. This is another little understood disease that cause the 'voice box' to vibrate when we do not want it to do so. Thus sufferers have a disturbed speech pattern. The team at UCLA has been successfully applying a surgical technique to cure this disease that relies on moving the nerve that stimulates the muscle, from one position to another. Known as 'Selective Laryngeal Adductor Denervation-Reinervation' this technique has been shown to be successful in about 70% of patients treated. The UCLA team now wish to apply their surgical skills to treating paralysis of the vocal fold by reinervation of the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (RLN); but before we attempt this treatment we need to understand more about how the RLN works.This is a small study, using dogs, which will measure the change in the stiffness (i.e. effectiveness) of the vocal fold when different levels of electrical stimulation are applied to the nerve. From this data we will be able to quantify the relationship, and thus develop the new surgical procedure.If successful then we will be able to make people suffering from paralysis of the 'voice box' to speak again.