Laryngology and Professional Voice

Taking Care of You: Laryngology and Care of the Professional Voice

The internationally renowned Vanderbilt Voice Center provides comprehensive voice care, as well as diagnosis and treatment of complex swallowing and airway disorders. Our program offers access to top-tier professionals in the laryngology field. Our laryngologists, speech-language pathologists, and singing-voice specialists are all at one location. The Vanderbilt Laryngology and Care of the Professional Voice program collaborates closely with other Vanderbilt specialties, including pulmonary medicine and gastroenterology.

Patient Care Excellence

The Professional Voice Services Care team utilizes advanced technology, cutting-edge research, comprehensive treatment options, and innovative clinical trials, such as a laryngeal pacemaker for bilateral vocal cord paralysis. We also are a premier training program for otolaryngologists pursuing advanced education and experience in laryngology. Our laryngology fellowship program is one of the longest-running and highest-sought-after programs in the nation.

The Vanderbilt Voice Center is located in the heart of Nashville - Music City USA. We are proud to be the destination of choice for the many professional singers, songwriters, and other performing artists who seek preventative care to keep their vocal instrument healthy. We apply that expertise to non-singers as well, including teachers, ministers, call center employees, or the grandparent who wants to read to their grandchild.

Beyond voice issues, we are also one of the busiest complex airway reconstructive programs and spasmodic dysphonia practices in the nation. We offer patients video imaging of the larynx, as well as a variety of other in-office testing and procedures.

Conditions We Treat

  • Voice problems
  • Vocal fold nodules, polyps and other benign lesions
  • Early-stage laryngeal cancer
  • Vocal fold paralysis
  • Spasmodic dysphonia
  • Laryngeal stenosis
  • Tracheal stenosis
  • Zenker's diverticulum
  • Vocal cord dysfunction
  • Chronic cough
  • Muscle tension dysphonia
  • Other causes of dysphagia

In-Office Tests, Treatments, and Services

  • Botox® injections
  • Computerized voice analysis
  • Laryngeal electromyography
  • Laser procedures
  • Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT)
  • Nasopharyngoscopy (or nasendoscopy)
  • Videolaryngoscopy
  • Videostroboscopy
  • Vocal speech therapy
  • Vocal fold (cord) injection laryngoplasty for paralysis

 

 

Innovations, Awards, and Technology

Dr. Gaelyn Garrett is the immediate past President of the Triological Society.

Dr. Alex Gelbard won the 2020 Fowler Award for his Triological Society thesis: "The proximal airway is a reservoir for adaptive immunologic memory in idiopathic subglottic stenosis." He also is the Principal Investigator of a National Institutes of Health R01 grant for other studies in sub-glotal stenosis; he continues to lead the North American Airway Collaborative (NoAAC), a multi-institutional collaborative to study the rare entity of idiopathic subglottic stenosis.

Dr. David Zealear, as Principal Investigator, with Dr. James Netterville and Dr. Gaelyn Garrett as co-investigators, was awarded a National Institutes of Health U01 for an upcoming clinical trial on laryngeal pacing for bilateral vocal fold paralysis.

Current research includes: a study by Dr. Maria Powell and all the laryngologists on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze and identification of voice disorders, and  a study to identify factors increasing risk of laryngeal injury after ICU-related intubation.

To refer a patient or receive professional voice services at the Vanderbilt Voice Center, call (615) 343-7464.

Our Team

Laryngologists

Voice Speech Pathology

Programs and Services

We also work closely with the following related programs and services:

 

Video story

Spasmodic Dysphonia patient story video

Publications

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