Recovery of vocal fold mocosa from laser incision

Six cats underwent CO₂ laser incisions of the vocal fold mucosa in a manner as analogous as possible to this procedure as performed in humans. The cats were killed at 1, 2, and 3 weeks postoperatively, and mucosa were removed from their vocal folds. Examination of nervous tissue in the vocal fold mucosa revealed evidence of degenerative processes and a reduction of the overall amount of neural tissue in all three animals. Implications of the findings for recovery of the vocal folds from laser procedures are discussed, as are possible implications of the observations for phonatory function.