[Hoarseness patterns in children]

Abstract

The objective of the present work was to study the structure of voice disorders in children depending on the methods chosen to diagnose dysphonia. Medical histories of 1,451 children at the age varying from 2 months to 16 years were analysed. All of them were patients hospitalized for the first time between 1997 and 2007 to treat hoarseness caused by vocal cord nodules, functional or mutational dysphonia, chronic laryngitis, vocal cord paresis/palsy, recurring respiratory papillomatosis, vocal cord cystitis, and cicatrical laryngeal stenosis. It was shown that vocal cord nodules and functional dysphonia diagnosed in 53.1% and 12.2% of the children were the main causes of voice disturbances. The former condition was especially common in boys aged from 7 to 12 years engaged in intense sports activities while the latter prevailed in 5 to 12 year-old girls studying singing. It is concluded that measures are needed to increase awareness of both parents and teachers of psycho-emotionally labile children about causes of hoarseness and methods of its diagnosis. The use of the fibrolaryngoscopic technique makes it possible to elucidate the cause of dysphonia in children of any age starting from the first days of postnatal life.