Laryngeal Electromyography

Abstract

Laryngeal electromyography (LEMG) is an important diagnostic and prognostic tool in neurolaryngology. This chapter presents the advances in LEMG in the last 5 years based on clinical trials. LEMG is in most cases an office-based procedure for decision making in neurolaryngology. When performed in a standardized way, LEMG helps to differentiate abnormal function of the vocal folds from nonorganic disorders. It is mainly used to confirm the diagnosis of vocal fold paralysis (VFP) and is less frequently used for the diagnosis of myopathies and motor neuron disorders. Also, the value of LEMG for other diseases than VFP is presented. First consensus recommendations for standard performance of LEMG have been published. This will facilitate the comparison of results from different researchers in the future. For many years, LEMG focused on the thyroarytenoid muscle. Data are presented showing that now more and more studies are performed including other laryngeal muscles, most importantly the posterior cricoarytenoid muscle and cricothyroid muscle. Diagnostics and estimating the prognosis for patients with VFP remains the most important issue for LEMG. First meta-analyses are now available analyzing which LEMG parameters are the best prognosticators for recovery or persistent palsy. Due to the advances in multichannel LEMG, laryngeal nerve monitoring can now control the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve during thyroid surgery. Finally, also the advances of LEMG for laryngeal pacing, guided laryngeal injections, laryngeal electrostimulation, and other indications beyond otolaryngology are discussed.