Nationally Recognized Physicians Swallowing Center
The Center for Voice, Airway, and Swallowing Disorders brings together experts from numerous specialties including laryngologists, gastroenterologists, radiologists, and speechlanguage pathologists to provide world-class access to a team dedicated to patient-centered care. Dysphagia is not a diagnosis but is a symptom of a change in swallowing or a sensation of difficulty swallowing. It is estimated that one out of 25 individuals have a swallowing disorder in the U.S. Symptoms include: • Increase in time to eat • Recurrent pneumonia • Weight loss from dehydration • Coughing during or after eating or drinking • Wet sounding voice Causes of swallowing disorders include: • Advancing age • Stroke • Acid reflux • Neurological injury • Parkinson’s disease • Head and Neck Cancer • Esophageal infection, inflammation, or scar tissue • Zenker’s diverticulum • Esophageal Stricture Our center offers the most proven diagnostic testing including modified barium swallow examination (performed with a speech-language pathologist and radiologist), as well as flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing in which the patient eats while we examine him/her endoscopically in the office. Other state-of-the-art testing modalities include highresolution esophageal and pharyngeal manometry.
Diagnosing and Treating Even the Most Complex Problems The Georgia Regents Center for Voice, Airway, and Swallowing Disorders is a specialized multidisciplinary center including the expertise of specialists from almost a dozen medical specialties. Home to the regions only subspecialty fellowship-trained laryngologists, the center is dedicated to providing outstanding medical and surgical care for adult patients with voice, airway, or swallowing disorders. By concentrating this diverse group of specialists and nationally recognized experts, the Center is able to offer state-of-the-art diagnostic tests and procedures including advanced techniques such as high-resolution manometry, laryngeal electromyography, endoscopic and open airway surgery, and a wide variety of in-office surgical endoscopic procedures.
Our Specialized Team Gregory Postma, MD
Director, GRU Center for Voice, Airway, and Swallowing Disorders Professor and Vice Chairman, Department of Otolaryngology
Paul M. Weinberger, MD, FACS Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology
Center for Voice, Airway, and Swallowing Disorders
Treatment
The Center has a full array of behavioral and exercise treatments, pharmacological treatments, and surgery. Surgical intervention includes esophageal dilation by a variety of methods including balloon dilation, botox injection to treat esophageal muscle spasm, as well as more advanced dilation and reconstructive surgical techniques such as combined “above and below” approaches to repair complete esophageal strictures and endoscopic laser surgery.
Contact Us
Don’t let voice, airway or swallowing problems undermine your health or limit you. Call us at 706721-4400 for more information or schedule an appointment online at grhealth.org/voice.
Center for Voice, Airway, and Swallowing Disorders Medical Office Building, 4th floor 1447 Harper Street Augusta. GA 30912 706-721-4400 (phone) l 706-721-9052 (fax) grhealth.org/voice
grhealth.org/voice
Advanced Treatments
Multidisciplinary Team
Voice Center
Diagnosis
The Voice Center is a collaborative multidisciplinary center comprising two fellowship-trained laryngologists along with several speech-language pathologists, neurologists, and gastroenterologists. Our center is dedicated to providing the finest in diagnostic and treatment options for any voice disorder. The human voice box is a remarkably designed instrument. Changes in the voice affect our social and professional lives in tremendous ways and can be an overall barometer of our general health. Voice disorders are usually manifested by: • Any kind of hoarseness • Loss of range • Pitch changes • Breathiness • Vocal fatigue
Conditions
Conditions often treated at our center include: • Polyps, nodules, or cysts • Acute and chronic laryngitis • Granulomas • Laryngeal papillomas • Vocal fold paralysis or weakness • Vocal fold atrophy • Spasmodic dysphonia • Muscle tension dysphonia • Parkinson’s disease and other central neurologic disorders • Acid reflux • Laryngeal cancer • Vocal fold scarring • Chronic cough
Diagnosis
Our center offers state-of-the-art diagnostic modalities including laryngovideostroboscopy, acoustic voice analysis, pH testing, and laryngeal electromyography.
Professional Voice Users Not just pop stars and opera singers are considered professional voice users. It’s anyone whose job involves the use of their voice. Teachers, lawyers, ministers – all are professional voice users who depend on their voice to make a living.
State of the Art Diagnostics We routinely perform unsedated in-office bronchoscopy as well as pulmonary function testing, to help us safely determine the cause of the breathing problem. Other state-of-the-art diagnostic methods commonly used include highresolution CT scan or MRI. We are the only center in the Southeast with the capability to create in-house 3-D printed models for surgical planning and patient education.
Treatment
Treatment
Our treatment options include laryngeal microsurgery, external phonosurgery, injection augmentation of the larynx, and botox injections of the larynx. We are nationally recognized pioneers and experts in an array of in-office laryngeal voice procedures, which have proven revolutionary in the care of many of our patients. We treat both amateur and professional singers as well as clergy, teachers, and other professional voice users.
Airway Center
We have assembled a world-class team of airway surgeons from several surgical specialties including laryngology, cardiothoracic and trauma surgery as well as critical care anesthesiologists, pulmonologists, speech pathologists, respiratory therapists, and others to create a Multidisciplinary Difficult Airway Team. Using this team approach, new patients are evaluated and managed in a collaborative fashion and the best interventions established and customized to each patient’s unique circumstances and needs.
We offer a full range of surgical treatments for airway narrowing at the level of the vocal cords or below. This includes endoscopic treatment of airway stenosis using various types of lasers and dilation techniques as well as complex open surgical reconstruction such as tracheal resection. We also take referrals of patients who have failed previous interventions and specialize in revision airway reconstruction including cartilage, skin, and muscle grafting. Disorders we commonly diagnose include: • Posterior glottic stenosis • Subglottic stenosis • Tracheal stenosis • Complex (multilevel) airway stenosis • Tracheocutaneous fistula • Autoimmune diseases with airway involvement • Tracheostomy dependence
Research
Airway disorders are also a large part of the research mission of our center. GRU is home to our modern Airway Research Lab performing stateof-the-art investigations harnessing regenerative medicine to develop new and better ways to treat airway damage and scar tissue.
Symptoms
Airway disorders manifest in several ways but most commonly by shortness of breath with exertion. This often is seen following trauma, a serious illness requiring a patient to be on a ventilator (“life support”), or following a tracheotomy. Various disease processes can also cause airway problems. Common symptoms of airway disorders include: • Trouble breathing, especially with exertion • “Whistling noise” when inhaling or exhaling • Wheezing that does not improve with bronchodilators
“When you can’t breathe well … nothing else matters. Thanks to the surgeons at GRU, I can breathe without a trach, and I have my life back!” - GRU Airway Center patient