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At the 1991 meeting of the American Laryngological Association in Waikaloa, Hawaii, Robert T. Sataloff, MD, DMA, Joseph R. Spiegel, MD, and Mary J. Hawkshaw, RN, Philadelphia, Pa, discussed their impressions of the clinical value of laryngeal videostroboscopy. Their findings were based on 352 studies conducted in 1989. About 60% of their voice patients, most of whom were professional users, underwent stroboscopy. A modest number, representing 7%, were studied on more than one occasion, usually for conditions such as vocal fold hemorrhage. In 29% of cases, the clinical prestroboscopic diagnosis was confirmed and additional conditions were identified; in 18%, substantial changes in diagnosis were rendered. Thus, nearly half of their laryngeal videostroboscopic studies enhanced the examiner's diagnosis.
Stroboscopic examination also provided diagnoses that could not be obtained in any other fashion, such as differentiation between intracordal cysts and nodules. Dr Sataloff and coworkers concluded that in about a third of