MGH Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Center Research Laboratories

Overview

The MGH Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Center has unique, state-of-the-art clinical patient facilities and two integrated research laboratories designed to gather human voice and airway function data from patients and research volunteers. There is a separate surgical engineering research laboratory that develops novel technologies, devices and surgical instruments for advancing the prevention, diagnosis, management, and treatment of laryngeal diseases and pathologies that affect voice, airway, and swallowing:

• Laryngeal Surgery Engineering Laboratory facilities include a large-animal operating room equipped for surgical procedures under general anesthesia.

  • Highly sophisticated microlaryngeal surgical equipment enables complex physiological recordings during intraoperative acoustic and aerodynamic assessment of vocal cord vibration using high-speed video and neuromuscular stimulation.
  • Cutting-edge machine-shop facilities include lathing, milling, laser-welding, to create custom prototype instrumentation for surgical innovation.
  • Equipment for biomaterial development and testing which supports the creation of new implant materials for laryngeal and pharyngeal augmentation. This includes viscoelastic assessment (rheometry), CT and MRI imaging, and whole-organ histology for evaluating tissue response and material residence time

• Voice Science Technology Laboratory: Facilities include a sound isolation chamber and instruments for studying human voice and speech production including acoustic, aerodynamic, digital high speed endoscopic imaging, electromyography, accelerometry, and electroglottography.

• Clinical Voice Assessment Laboratory: Facilities include a sound isolation chamber and instruments for the objective clinical assessment of voice production with endoscopic video stroboscopy and acoustic and aerodynamic measures.

Research Projects

• Development of implantable biomaterials to restore 1) vocal cord vibration and voice, 2) coughing to enhance pulmonary toilet, and 3) vocal cord closure to prevent aspiration.
• Development of implantable devices (pacers) to reanimate and reinnervate paralyzed vocal cords, pharyngeal muscular dysfunction secondary to nerve weakness, and/or radiation induced injuries.
• Development of cryopreserved aorta as an implantable substrate for complex laryngeal and pharyngeal reconstruction secondary to cancer and its treatment.
• Laryngeal airway injury program to treat complications from endotracheal intubation.
• Fiber-based laser technology program for a new FDA-approved laser to treat tumors and mucosal diseases of the larynx, lungs, upper and lower aerodigestive tract, thyroid gland, brain, and genitourinary system.
• Use of antiangiogenesis agents to treat proliferative mucosal diseases such HPV recurrent respiratory papillomatosis.
• Development of office-based local-anesthetic treatment modalities to treat mucosal diseases of the larynx and vocal cord neurologic weakness

Vocal Hyperfunction Clinical Research Center

• Identifying physical and behavioral factors and mechanisms to improve detection and phenotyping of vocal hyperfunction.
• Sensorimotor Mechanisms of Vocal Hyperfunction.
• Modeling biomechanical, aero-acoustic, and auditory-motor control mechanisms of vocal hyperfunction.
• Use of ambulatory biofeedback to improve behavioral treatment of vocal hyperfunction.
• Ambulatory monitoring of a vocal efficiency index to improve the clinical management of voice disorders.
• Comprehensive assessment of speech physiology and acoustics in Parkinson's disease progression.
• RTSS-Voice: Towards a unified system to classify treatments for muscle tension dysphonia.