Matthew Cherko, Consultant Laryngologist, Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading.
It was a historic day when the highly anticipated inaugural joint meeting between the British Laryngological Association (BLA) and the Union of the European Phoniatricians (UEP) took place in London. In a celebration of interprofessional learning and working, the meeting heard laryngologists, speech and language therapists, phoniatricians, voice coaches and acousticians discuss the latest seminal work in this ever-growing field.
Professor Berit Schneider-Stickler (right) of the University of Vienna opened the educational content, detailing our advancing knowledge of vocal fold palsy. No longer seen as a simple binary phenomenon, it is now regarded as a complex and variable injury. Its gradual evolution leads to contrasting outcomes depending on the degree of reinnervation and synkinesis. She also shared her experience of functional electrical stimulation of the larynx and gave an update on the progress being made with work on the laryngeal pacemaker – remarkably entering phase two of its trial.
The theme of neurolaryngology didn’t end there, with further fascinating work presented by Ludvic Zrinzo and Marie Krueger from the Unit of Functional Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London. They showed eye-opening video footage of the effect deep brain stimulation therapy may have on patients with movement disorders and dystonias, and how this translates to managing laryngeal dystonias causing voice disorders – with examples of some exceptionally impressive results in the spasmodic dysphonia cohort.
The breadth of disciplines at this meeting was further highlighted, not only with Johan Sundberg’s fascinating talk and demonstration on the biophysical production of voice, but also with Mandeep Bhabra presenting her results of an innovative speech therapist-led two-week wait clinic in Sunderland Royal Hospital, demonstrating the increasing involvement of allied health professionals in delivering laryngology services.
To follow up on such a successful inaugural meeting, it won’t be too long until the next, with Zagreb, Croatia hosting on 25 May 2024.
Left: BLA President Declan Costello.
