Find the Voice You've Lost
The GW Voice Treatment Center
Call on Us for Help Sophisticated Evaluation Tests "The Voice Treatment Center is unique because patients don't have to make
multiple appointments for different evaluations," Dr. Bielamowicz says. "Our
interdisciplinary team of surgeons, nurses and speech language pathologists can
fully evaluate patients and develop treatment plans during their visits."
Does Your Voice
Need Help? Colosimo, 53, relied on his clear tenor voice for more than 30 years until it began
deteriorating steadily over a year and a half.
"My singing had always been fairly effortless," he says. "So it was difficult when I
had to labor to sing, and my voice became very erratic. I didn't enjoy performing and
worried that I'd lose my ability to perform and to teach voice."
Colleagues recommended the GW Voice Treatment Center. During Colosimo's
first appointment, Thomas Troost, MD, PhD, otolaryngologist
at the Center, put a thin fiber-optic tube down Colosimo's
nose and watched his vocal cords while he sang.
"He had a benign polyp lodged between his vocal cords
that prevented them from closing properly," Dr. Troost says.
Dr. Troost removed the polyp in an outpatient endoscopic
procedure in February. Colosimo was teaching a week after
surgery and performing within 10 days.
"I can perform beyond my wildest dreams," he says. "I have
more range and can sing better than I have in 20 years. The
joy came back to my singing."
Find Your Voice
You use your voice for hours
every day. Like many people,
you probably don't give it much
thought -- until something goes wrong.
"About 20 percent of people have voice
difficulties at some time in their lives," says Steven
Bielamowicz, MD, Chief, Division of Otolaryngology
and Professor of Surgery. "People find that changes in
their normal voices affect them personally and in some
cases, professionally."
Fortunately, if something happens to your voice,
physicians at the GW Voice Treatment Center diagnose
and treat a variety of voice-altering disorders, including:
Specialists at the Voice Treatment Center take complete medical histories and
evaluate patients' voices. Staff members can measure vocal function, view the
vocal cords during speech, assess the nerve-muscle activity of the vocal cords
and perform other tests to diagnose the cause of patients' symptoms.
Innovative Solutions:
Botox to Surgery
Steven Bielamowicz, MD,
Chief, Division of
Otolaryngology
Some patients benefit from nonsurgical
treatments, like medications, voice
therapy, Botox injections or laser therapy.
Surgeons also perform innovative
procedures to treat vocal disorders. Some
of the procedures available include:
Doctors can perform newly developed
microflap excision procedures to remove
benign vocal cord lesions. During these
procedures, surgeons use a microscope to
view the larynx. Next, they make a
microscopic cut in the vocal fold to create
a small flap. They lift the flap of normal
vocal cord lining tissue to expose the
abnormal tissue. The lesion is removed
and the flap is returned to its normal
position. These precise procedures allow
the patient to speak normally again.
For patients with early stage vocal cord
cancer, this treatment can spare them the
long-term effects of radiation therapy,
which can damage the voice.
You may need treatment for a voice
disorder if you have some of these
symptoms:
Singing Becomes Joyful Again
Local singer Bill Colosimo had a benign polyp removed
from his vocal cords at the GW Voice Treatment Center.
Singing is Bill Colosimo's passion and his livelihood. He performs, directs the Singing
Capital Chorus and the Alexandria Singers and teaches voice.
For a referral to the GW Voice Treatment
Center, please call Direct DoctorsSM Plus
at
 |
900 23rd St., NW, Washington, DC 20037 (202) 715-4000 |
