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AAO-HNSF Clinical Practice Guideline: Improving Voice Outcomes After Thyroid Surgery – Press Release & Fact Sheet

AAO-HNSF Clinical Practice Guideline: Improving Voice Outcomes After Thyroid Surgery – Press Release & Fact Sheet

ALEXANDRIA, VA —The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation on Tuesday published a new Clinical Practice Guideline on “Improving Voice Outcomes after Thyroid Surgery” to recognize the importance of the patient’s voice and the potential impact thyroid surgery can have on it.

Thyroid surgery rates have tripled over the last three decades. This new guideline will help educate physicians and patients of the importance of voice outcomes after thyroid surgery, steps that can be taken during surgery to preserve the voice, and available options for voice rehabilitation.

Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD (Guideline Chair)

The first national, evidence-based guideline on improving voice outcomes after thyroid surgery, it was developed by a multi-disciplinary panel that included consumers, physicians specializing in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, general surgery, endocrinology, internal medicine, family medicine, and anesthesiology, and representatives of speech-language pathology and nursing.

Research shows that temporary voice problems may occur in up to 80 percent of patients after thyroid surgery. An estimated 118,000 to 166,000 patients in the United States undergo thyroidectomy each year. The incidence of thyroid cancer continues to grow and affects three times more women than men.

The guideline’s recommendations were developed to empower physicians and surgeons to optimize voice outcomes for adult patients undergoing thyroid surgery as well as to educate patients of the potential impact on their voices and to counsel those patients whose voice does change after surgery about rehabilitation options.

Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery is the official scientific journal of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF).  The guideline was published as a supplement to the journal’s June edition.

The guideline’s authors are: Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD; Gregory W. Randolph, MD; Michael D. Seidman, MD; Richard M.  Rosenfeld, MD, MPH; Peter Angelos, MD, PhD; Julie Barkmeier-Kraemer, PhD, CCC-SLP; Michael S. Benninger, MD; Joel H. Blumin, MD; Gregory Dennis, MD; John Hanks, MD; Megan R. Haymart, MD; Richard T. Kloos, MD; Brenda Seals, PhD, MPH; Jerry M. Schreibstein, MD; Mack A. Thomas, MD; Carolyn Waddington, MS, FNP; Barbara Warren, PsyD, Med; Peter J. Robertson, MPA.

Members of the media who wish to obtain a copy of the guideline should contact: Kathy Lewis at 1-703-535-3767, or [email protected].

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