PDA Ligation

Amy - posted on 11/04/2010

Our daughter had vocal cord paralysis as an infant and toddler. She squeaked all the time when she was breathing. She was able to eat solid foods fine. That is our experience, but I think you should be careful. You certainly don't want a choking episode!

Julie - posted on 11/02/2010

Sorry, I do not get alerts that I've gotten a reply. To answer your questions: Yes, my son is talking. He may be quieter than other kids, but still gets loud enough! His ENT said that he'd still be quiet, even after she was convinced he compensated. I think the compensation comes more into play with the aspiration hazard. I don't think the opening fully closed until a bit later, but the time in the NICU was a bit fuzzy for me. My ENT said that they have a chance up 'til 2 years or so to regain function. For as long as I can remember, my son has had a cough (not as bad, but still around) and a lot of what I call upper respiratory noise. Almost like raspy gurgles or rales or even low-pichted wheezes. I could classify some as almost a grunt noise. When those noises were at their worst, his scoping showed all the swelling and ugly-looking tissue back there. Over time, it seems to have been reduced to quite minimal.

I imagine you have your son elevated when he sleeps ... hopefully that would help reduce those scary-sounding episodes. We didn't have any episodes that bad. I'm sorry I don't have anything about that. Keep in mind that little ones are incredibly resilient and that one day, he will be whining and complaining at you and you'll have to remind yourself of the time you wondered if he would ever vocalize properly.

Best wishes to you and your son.

Ashley - posted on 10/24/2010

He has been scoped a couple of times, they did not say his right was compensating. They told me that he might need surgery to move the vocal cord into the "closed" position. Luckily my son does not have severe reflux. But he is 6 months old now and has been having choking spells in his sleep, I wake up to him arching and not being able to breathe. After I pick him up he starts coughing. I'm thinking he is starting to have a little bit of reflux and is aspirating then.

Is your son talking? I was told that my son's voice would be very quiet/raspy. Or is that not a side effect since his right cord is compensating? Has it been compensating the whole time or did it eventually fix itself? Also my son has a vibrating/grunting noise that he makes did or does your son do the same?

Julie - posted on 10/24/2010

YES! My son is completely paralyzed on the left. I don't remember now if we discovered this in the NICU or at his first ENT visit. Anyhow, he also has severe reflux and when he was scoped (camera up the nose) the tissue looked really bad and the left was paralyzed. Anyhow, after the reflux was managed, he was scoped again -- still completely paralyzed but the right fully compensated for it. That is to say the working cord closed the opening entirely. Now, my son did have the swallow study done, too (major feeding issues) and he had 1 micro-jet of contrast slip past it. Luckily, there was no evidence of the barium in his lungs on radiographs.

Once my son got over his feeding issues(very sensitive gag to any texture), he had no problems eating. His only real problem was that he'd cram and make himself gag and maybe regurgitate or vomit (then, we'd just give him a little bit of whatever until he ate at a more suitable pace).

Our ENT said that they could heal up to 2 years of age, but since my son is 2 1/2, his is very likely permanent. Because his right cord compensates, there should be no problems except for maybe a little bit quieter than he'd otherwise be.

Do you know what the right vocal cord is up to? If your son has been scoped, they should know this already.

I don't know how old your son is, but I hope *fingers crossed* he'll heal or at least be fully compensated by the right.