Vocal Cord Radiation Side Effects

Late side effects can happen months to years after you receive radiation therapy.

Vocal cord radiation side effects.

The voice box sits just below your throat. Other radiation therapy side effects you may have depend on the part of the body that is treated. We are 3 years post treatment chemoradiation for stage 4 nasopharyngeal tumor. Laser surgery or radiation.

This results in paralysis of the vocal cord muscles. Well i guess the other shoe has dropped. Other side effects of radiation therapy may include. Vocal cord paralysis occurs when the nerve impulses to your voice box larynx are disrupted.

Radiation side effect vocal cord paralysis. The cancer is gone but 3 years post treatment there is nerve damage from the radiation resulting in vocal cord. Caused by neck tenderness and swelling and or. Nearly all of the side effects of radiation therapy for head and neck cancer may contribute to.

Aug 2015 feb 08 2019 2 08 pm. It s made of cartilage and contains your vocal cords which vibrate to make sound when you talk. That s because your vocal cords sometimes called vocal folds do more than just produce sound. There are quite a few factors to consider when weighing these two options which can be confusing for the patient and challenging for the clinician to explain.

And because of those side effects radiation therapy cannot be used multiple times in this sensitive area so typically radiation is reserved for more invasive cancer that involves more of the voice box. Vocal cord paralysis can affect your ability to speak and even breathe. It can happen all at once or come on slowly. After 15 years of laryngology practice i decided to create a single codified.

Most surgical procedures can spare major portions of the voice box and with modern techniques reconstruction of the voice box can be accomplished with preservation of reasonable voice quality. Early cancer of the glottis vocal cords or supraglottis false vocal cords can be effectively treated with either surgery alone or radiation therapy. Skin problems in the area being treated ranging from redness to blistering and peeling dry mouth worsening of hoarseness trouble swallowing loss of taste possible breathing trouble from swelling tiredness hearing problems. Late side effects of radiation therapy may be permanent.

People feel fatigue in different ways and you may feel more or less fatigue than someone else who is getting the same amount of radiation therapy to the same part of the body. Early side effects happen shortly after you receive radiation therapy.