Spontaneous Vocal Fold Polyps Remission after Lockdown for Covid-19 Pandemic: Does Vocal Load Matter?
Marco Fantini, Giovanni Succo, Martina Tascone and 3 others
PMID 33771429WHAT IT FOUND
Five professional voice users with vocal fold polyps saw their lesions shrink or resolve after a lockdown forced them to reduce voice use by at least 70%.
No surgery, medication, or therapy was given. This suggests vocal rest may help, but does not prove it.
Key findings
01All five patients had complete or nearly complete remission of vocal fold polyps after lockdown, with no treatment other than reduced voice use.
02Patients reported a self-quantified decrease of at least 70% in daily vocal load during the lockdown period.
03Voice handicap scores, perceptual quality, and acoustic measures all improved significantly in the group after the lockdown.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Very small sample size (n=5) with no control group, so the results cannot determine if the improvement was due to the lockdown, the passage of time, or other unmeasured factors. The reduction in vocal load was self-reported and estimated by the patients, not objectively measured. All patients were female, non-smokers, and had small polyps, so these findings may not apply to other patient groups. The study did not test a specific voice therapy protocol, only the effect of forced rest due to external circumstances.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests and no financial disclosures.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this as evidence that voice rest alone is a proven treatment for vocal fold polyps. This was an uncontrolled case series of five people; without a comparison group, it is impossible to know how many would have improved anyway, or if the lockdown itself caused other changes that affected healing.