Aphonia

Aphonia

SignSymptom infobox
Name = PAGENAME
ICD10 = ICD10|R|49|1|r|47
ICD9 = ICD9|784.41

Aphonia is the medical term for the inability to speak. It is considered more severe than dysphonia. A primary cause of aphonia is bilateral disruption of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, which supplies nearly all the muscles in the larynx. Damage to the nerve may be the result of surgery (e.g., thyroidectomy) or a tumor.

Aphonia means "no voice." In other words, a person with this disorder has "lost" his/her voice.

Functional Aphonia

Functional (or psychogenic) aphonia is often seen in patients with underlying psychological problems. Laryngeal examination will show usually bowed vocal folds that fail to adduct to the midline during phonation. However, the vocal folds will adduct when the patient is asked to cough. Treatment should involve consultation and counseling with a speech pathologist and, if necessary, a psychologist.

In this case, the patient's history and the observed unilateral immobility rules out functional aphonia.

Cause of Aphonia

There are many reasons why this may happen. Injuries seem to be the cause of aphonia rather frequently - minor injuries which affect the second and third dorsal area in such a manner that the lymph patches concerned with coordination become either atrophic or relatively nonfunctioning.

Basically, any injury or condition that prevents the vocal cords, the paired bands of muscle tissue positioned over the trachea, from coming together and vibrating will have the potential to make a person unable to speak. When a person prepares to speak, the vocal folds come together over the trachea and vibrate due to the airflow from the lungs. This mechanism produces the sound of the voice. If the vocal folds cannot meet together to vibrate, sound will not be produced. Fear also is often a and a contributor.

ee also

*Mute

External links

* [http://homepage.mac.com/changcy/voicebreathy.htm#aphonia Muscle Tension Aphonia Video Example]
* [http://www.depression-guide.com/aphonia.htm]


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • aphonia — (n.) want of voice, loss of voice, having no sound, 1719, from Mod.L. aphonia, from Gk. aphonia speechlessness, noun of quality from aphonos voiceless, from a , privative prefix (see A (Cf. a ) (3)), + phone voice (see FAME (Cf. fame)). Less… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Aphonia — A*pho ni*a, Aphony Aph o*ny, n. [NL. aphonia, Gr. ?, fr. ? voiceless; a priv. + ? voice: cf. F. aphonie.] (Med.) Loss of voice or vocal utterance. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • aphonia — [ā fō′nē ə] n. [ModL < Gr aphōnia < aphōnos, voiceless < a , without + phōnē, sound, voice < phanai, to say: see PHONO ] loss of voice due to an organic or functional disorder …   English World dictionary

  • aphonia — n. (also aphony) Med. the loss or absence of the voice through a disease of the larynx or mouth. Etymology: mod.L aphonia f. Gk f. aphonos voiceless f. a not + phone voice * * * aphonia (əˈfəʊnɪə) See aphony …   Useful english dictionary

  • aphonia — noun Etymology: New Latin, from Greek aphōnia, from aphōnos voiceless, from a + phōnē sound more at ban Date: 1778 loss of voice and of all but whispered speech • aphonic adjective …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • aphonia — [eɪ fəʊnɪə, ə ] (also aphony af(ə)ni) noun Medicine inability to speak through disease of or damage to the larynx or mouth. Origin C17: mod. L., from Gk aphōnia, from aphōnos voiceless …   English new terms dictionary

  • aphonia — /ay foh nee euh/, n. Pathol. loss of voice, esp. due to an organic or functional disturbance of the vocal organs. [1770 80; < NL < Gk: speechlessness. See A 6, PHON , IA] * * * …   Universalium

  • aphonia — noun Loss of voice; the inability to speak …   Wiktionary

  • aphonia — Loss of the voice as a result of disease or injury to the larynx. [G. a priv. + phone, voice] hysterical a. loss of voice for psychogenic reasons, as in some varieties of hysteria. SYN: nonorganic a.. nonorganic a. SYN: hysterical a.. a.… …   Medical dictionary

  • aphonia — n. voice loss caused by a disease of the larynx …   English contemporary dictionary

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