Laryngeal anesthetization for the treatment of acquired disfluency: a case study

The subject of this case study is an adult who became severely disfluent after a motor vehicle accident in which he did not suffer significant injuries. His disfluency persisted for 4 months notwithstanding a short trial of speech therapy. Hyperfunctional phonation subsystem disturbances were identi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of fluency disorders 2002-09, Vol.27 (3), p.215-226
Main Authors: Dworkin, James Paul, Culatta, Richard A, Abkarian, G.G, Meleca, Robert J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents, Traffic
Administration, Topical
Adult
Adult-onset
Anesthetics, Local - administration & dosage
Anesthetics, Local - pharmacology
Biological and medical sciences
Diagnostic analyses
Humans
Larynx - drug effects
Lidocaine - administration & dosage
Lidocaine - pharmacology
Male
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Stuttering
Stuttering - drug therapy
Treatment recovery
Treatments
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Summary:The subject of this case study is an adult who became severely disfluent after a motor vehicle accident in which he did not suffer significant injuries. His disfluency persisted for 4 months notwithstanding a short trial of speech therapy. Hyperfunctional phonation subsystem disturbances were identified on follow-up evaluations. Laryngeal anesthetization was achieved via a transcutaneous lidocaine injection. The patient improved dramatically within 15 min of the procedure. More than 18 months later, he has retained normal speech fluency without any additional post-injection intervention. Theoretical discussions are rendered to help interpret this treatment outcome. Educational objectives: The reader will be able to describe (1) the laryngeal movements and adjustments commonly associated with stuttered speech; (2) the speech dysfunctions a patient evidenced following a motor vehicle accident; and (3) the author’s treatment rationale for resolving the patient’s speech disorder.
ISSN:0094-730X
1873-801X
DOI:10.1016/S0094-730X(02)00129-8