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Voice-saving Laser

Friday, March 14

In tonight's Medical Watch -- a laser to help you sound better. It's zapped the pipes of famous singers and now the technology can save your voice.

Steven Tyler screams as he sings ... helping fans rock out to Aerosmith. But after a big concert he couldn't even talk let alone sing.

On the campaign trail Hillary Clinton lost her voice ... a similar strain that causes laryngitis.

"I would wake up and not have a voice."

For Catherine Garoufolis, for no reason at all her voice would give out.

Catherine Garoufalis: "The episodes lasted three, maybe four days and they got progressively together, sometimes three or four times a month."

Soon she had no voice at all.

"The telephone would ring and I couldn't answer it."

"A lot of patients out there have hoarseness that they've come to accept as part of their daily life, when in fact there is an identifiable and treatable cause of their hoarseness."

A scope identifies the problem. A broken blood vessel on the vocal cords.

"The reason its impacting the vocal cord is it would leak blood and bleed and she would have blood in her vocal cord that's when she would be hoarse."

Doctors used to cut away the problem but scar tissue could form. The treatment now: a pulsed laser.

Dr. Lee Akst, Director of Laryngology, Loyola University Hospital: "This new generation of pulsed lasers is specific for the blood vessels. All the energy is soaked up into the blood vessel in such a quick period of time that it has no time to diffuse and cause scar in the rest of the vocal cord."

Which means it fixes the problem without causing further damage.

"This is a view now after we've used the laser."

Tyler had the surgery and went back to the stage. Catherine got back to her day to day activities.

"We'll see you Monday night!"

The laser surgery is an outpatient procedure that takes about an hour and a half. Recovery takes about a week and patients will have a sore throat during that time. After that patients have their voice back.

For more information about the voice laser or to contact Dr. Lee Akst, contact Loyola University Hospital at (888) LUHS-888