VARIOUS surgical procedures have been devised for the correction of bilateral abductor paralysis of the vocal cords. In almost all cases so reported the paralysis resulted from operations on the thyroid gland. No attempt will be made here to review all the procedures to be found in the literature, but those most commonly employed will be mentioned.
Surgical treatment of bilateral abductor paralysis of the vocal cords gained renewed interest after the report of King1 in 1939. Originally he conceived the idea of transposing the anterior belly of the omohyoid muscle to the arytenoid cartilage, with the idea of restoring the function of the paralyzed posterior cricoarytenoid muscle. The operation, described as a means of opening the cord by use of the transposed muscle, actually was a new method of displacement of the cord.
Hoover2 had previously reported success with submucous resection of the vocal cord. Kelly3