Surgically Acquired Vocal Cord Palsy in Infants and Children with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD): Description of Feeding Outcomes.

Impaired swallowing in infants can impact upon the ability to feed orally, often resulting in dependency on supplementary feeding. Such difficulties can lead to an increased burden of care and associated costs. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the impact of vocal cord palsy (VCP), acquired intraoperatively during cardiac surgery, on the feeding outcomes of infants at a tertiary metropolitan children's hospital.

Vocal cord reconstruction to treat aspiration caused by a post-intubation posterior glottic furrow.

Objective: To present the case of a premature child with a furrow in the posterior vocal cord as a result of prolonged intubation, with symptoms of aspiration and poor voice, treated with a novel method of vocal cord reconstruction.

Methods: The vocal cord was reconstructed endoscopically by freeing up the edge of cord remnant and suturing this to a flap of inter-arytenoid mucosa to create a new cord.

Results: The resulting neo-cord was able to achieve full glottic closure with resolution of aspiration, and this was also accompanied by improvement in voice quality.