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Key Points
➤ Dysphonia (which causes hoarseness) is a very common complaint
affecting nearly one-third of the population at some point in their
lives.
➤ Dysphonia can affect patients of all ages and genders but has an
increased prevalence in teachers, older adults, and other persons
with significant vocal demands.
➤ Of dysphonia-related ICD-9 diagnoses, the most commonly used by
physicians were acute laryngitis, non-specific dysphonia, benign vocal
fold lesions (e.g., cysts, polyps, nodules), and chronic laryngitis.
➤ More serious conditions that cause dysphonia include:
• Neurological (e.g., vocal fold paralysis, spasmodic dysphonia, essential tremor,
Parkinson's disease, amyotropic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis)
• Gastrointestinal (e.g., reflux, eosinophilic esophagitis)
• Rheumatologic/autoimmune (e.g., rheumatic arthritis, Sjogren's, sarcoidosis,
amyloidosis, granulomatosis with polyangiitis)
• Allergic, pulmonary (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
• Musculoskeletal (e.g., muscle tension dysphonia, fibromyalgia, cervicalgia)
• Psychological (functional voice disorders)
• Traumatic (e.g., laryngeal fracture, inhalational injury, iatrogenic injury, blunt/
penetrating trauma)
• Infectious (e.g., candidiasis)
