Clinical implementation of laryngeal high-speed videoendoscopy: challenges and evolution

Abstract

High-speed videoendoscopy (HSV) captures the true intracycle vibratory behavior of the vocal folds, which allows for overcoming the limitations of videostroboscopy for more accurate objective quantification methods. However, the commercial HSV systems have not gained widespread clinical adoption because of remaining technical and methodological limitations and an associated lack of information regarding the validity, practicality, and clinical relevance of HSV. The purpose of this article is to summarize the practical, technological and methodological challenges we have faced, to delineate the advances we have made, and to share our current vision of the necessary steps towards developing HSV into a robust tool. This tool will provide further insights into the biomechanics of laryngeal sound production, as well as enable more accurate functional assessment of the pathophysiology of voice disorders leading to refinements in the diagnosis and management of vocal fold pathology. The original contributions of this paper are the descriptions of our color high-resolution HSV integration, the methods for facilitative playback and HSV dynamic segmentation, and the ongoing efforts for implementing HSV in phonomicrosurgery, as well as the analysis of the challenges and prospects for the clinical implementation of HSV, additionally supported by references to previously reported data.