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Laryngeal polyps
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 05.07.2025
Polyps constitute the most significant part of benign tumors of the larynx. Laryngeal polyps most often occur in males in adulthood.
What causes laryngeal polyps?
The causes of laryngeal polyps are the same factors as for vocal nodules. At the onset of the disease, there is vasodilation and congestion in the submucous glands of the larynx, localized in places of greatest trauma to the vocal folds, namely in their anterior third. After this, over the next 3 months, a polyp forms at this site. Chronic inflammatory diseases of the larynx are of great importance in the occurrence of laryngeal polyps.
Pathological anatomy of laryngeal polyp
A laryngeal polyp usually looks like a single, unilateral, round tumor from whitish-gray to red and even bluish in color, often prolapsing into the glottis on a stalk. Sometimes they take the form of a gelatinous formation similar to a nasal polyp. Small polyps have a smooth surface, while large ones can have a papillary appearance. Laryngeal polyps are not neoplasms as such, but are proliferative formations of the vocal fold's own tissues, which are, in fact, an inflammatory hyperplasia of these tissues. Their growth is due to the phenomenon of stasis in the blood and lymphatic vessels.
[ Symptoms of laryngeal polyp
The main symptom of a vocal fold polyp is a violation of voice formation. In the initial stage, when a small polyp is tightly fixed to the vocal fold, causing an increase in its mass and a change in the frequency characteristics of the sound, a change in the tone of the voice and a violation of its clarity occurs. When a laryngeal polyp occupies an interposition between the vocal folds, sometimes wedging between them, sometimes sliding up or down, the phenomenon of diplophonia occurs. With a polyp on a stalk, voice disorders can be more varied, but hoarseness mainly predominates. The specified functional features are due to those forms of the polyp that are shown in the illustrations above.
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