USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery
Research

Research – Laryngology and Voice

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Laryngology and Voice

Research at Keck Medicine of USC in the field of laryngology is focused on clinical outcomes studies and clinical trials to improve voice, swallowing and airway for people who have experienced loss of these crucial functions due to conditions affecting the larynx (voice box) and throat.

Leveraging their unique interprofessional approach and clinical excellence, faculty in the division of laryngology/USC Voice Center are uniquely positioned to advance knowledge and treatment of voice, swallowing and airway disorders. Active research is underway to restore voice loss associated with aging, vocal fold paralysis, vocal fold paresis, scar and dystonia using novel behavioral, medical and procedural interventions.

Investigators in the Applegate Lab and USC Voice Center faculty have collaborated to develop a novel optical coherence tomography laryngoscope allowing cross sectional and 3D imaging of the vocal folds during phonation for use in the clinic. Application of this new technology to further understand vocal fold vibratory physiology in health and disease is actively underway and is showing great promise.

Clinical trials are underway to investigate novel office-based minimally invasive laryngeal injectable therapeutics, including intralesional injection of corticosteroids for subglottic and tracheal stenosis, platelet-rich plasma injections to rejuvenate vocal fold tissue loss in scar and aging, and novel bio-compatible materials to restore voice in vocal fold paralysis and paresis. Novel voice therapy techniques are being developed, studied, and applied by the team of scholarly speech-language pathologists in the division.

Faculty in the Division of Laryngology and the USC Voice Center are actively engaged in and lead multi institutional research and are members of the North American Airway Collaborative, the Vocal Cord Paralysis Experience (COPE) study, and multi institutional research in treatment outcomes for patients with Zenker’s diverticula.

Faculty Researchers:
Michael Johns, III, MD
Karla O’Dell. MD
Elizabeth Shuman, MD

Research Lab Collaboration

Brian Applegate, PhD

Our research interests are broadly to develop novel biophotonic technologies for point-of-care diagnosis and monitoring of human disease as well as the basic scientific understanding of human disease. Our primary application area is functional imaging of the middle and inner ear. We are working toward advanced diagnostics for patient care as well as advanced imaging systems for probing the fundamental mechanics of the ear.

Left) Technician imaging the ear of a volunteer with a prototype Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) otoscope. Right) An otoscope image and OCT cross-sections of a patient presenting with a retraction pocket, illustrating the depth of the retraction and its contact points with the incus and cochlear promontory. (Photo Credit: Applegate Research Group)