Pre- and Postoperative Voice Therapy for Benign Vocal Fold Lesions: An International Electronic Delphi Consensus Study.
Anna White, Paul Carding, Vicky Booth and 3 others
PMID 36624018WHAT IT FOUND
International voice experts agreed on 33 components for best-practice therapy around vocal fold surgery.
They recommended pre- and postoperative care, including gentle vocalization within the first week and semioccluded vocal tract exercises, rather than prolonged absolute rest.
Key findings
01Experts reached consensus that patients undergoing phonosurgery for benign vocal fold lesions should be offered voice therapy both before and after surgery.
02Consensus favored a balance between wound healing and remobilization, with patients encouraged to resume gentle vocalization within the first week post-surgery.
03Semioccluded vocal tract exercises were agreed to be a beneficial component of therapy, whereas laryngeal manual therapy was viewed as an additional tool rather than a key component.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study reflects expert opinion and consensus, not empirical evidence of efficacy. Agreement does not prove that the recommended practices improve patient outcomes. The panel was highly selected, requiring significant experience and a majority of time spent in voice disorders, which may limit generalizability to clinicians with less specialized experience. There was no formal statistical comparison of outcomes between different treatment approaches, as this was a consensus study rather than a clinical trial.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was reviewed by the University of Nottingham Research Ethics Committee. Funding sources are not explicitly detailed in the provided text beyond the ethical review.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this consensus as evidence that these specific therapy components lead to better voice outcomes compared to other approaches. The study establishes what experts agree 'should' be done based on theory and practice, but it does not test whether these recommendations are effective.