The act of oral communication, which marks the uniqueness of humanity and which appears so simple, when dissected, involves hundreds of muscles and every level of cognition. It crosses the disciplines of psychology, linguistics, speech pathology, audiology, education, dentistry, anatomy, physiology, neurology and medicine.

Central to the act of oral communication is the larynx. Accordingly , it is not surprising that the larynx has been called the “ barometer of well being” and that diagnosis of laryngeal disorders is complex and depends not only on integration of knowledge across disciplines, but also on careful observation both of structure and function of the larynx and of the whole patient presenting with the laryngeal problem.

Hoarseness is defined as any change in voice. It reflects any abnormality of normal phonation. The various common disorders which leads to change in voice are benign vocal cord lesions ( vocal nodule, vocal polyps, intracordal cysts ), vocal cord paralysis, cancer of the larynx.