Diagnostic and treatment facilities at the Evelyn Trammell Institute for Voice and Swallowing serve the professional voice, the pediatric and aging voice, the paralyzed or weakened larynx, benign and malignant tumors affecting laryngeal function, voice restoration and rehabilitation in head and neck cancer patients, and many other disorders. Read more about:
 Evaluation
Treatment
Care for the Professional Voice
Underlying Conditions Causing Voice Disorders
Specialized Clinical Services
State-of-the-Art Procedures & EquipmentEvaluation
Voice specialists at the Evelyn Trammell Institute fully evaluate a patient’s vocal abilities using state-of-the-art analysis, and provide appropriate recommendations and treatment. The evaluation process is highly educational and interactive, allowing patients to view video images of their own vocal folds. This, along with recommendations from the specialist and physician, assists patients in making decisions for care based on their individual needs. Voice specialists at the Institute focus treatment primarily upon optimizing the speaking voice through muscle re-education, teaching proper vocal techniques and hygiene. These strategies often improve vocal performance during singing. When appropriate, they work closely with physicians, community vocal coaches and singing teachers to achieve full vocal performance. Treatment
Voice restoration following laryngectomy surgery is another area of service. Clinicians provide pre-operative and post-operative instructions in the management and use of alternative speech production methods such as electronic speech aids, esophageal speech and tracheoesophageal voice prostheses.
Care for the Professional Voice
“There is much we can impart to singers to help them stay healthy and prevent injury. The voice is truly a specialty just like sinus and allergies or ear problems,” said Lucinda Halstead, M.D., who established the voice center at MUSC in 1989. Dr. Halstead is part of an international network of doctors who specialize in treating elite performers. She works collaboratively with speech-language pathologists and Deanna McBroom, a professional singer and associate professor of music at the College of Charleston. Dr. Halstead also serves as the otolaryngologist for the Spoleto Festival USA. In 1987, she established and continues to direct MUSC’s annual Spoleto Symposium: Medicine in the Vocal Arts. For those professionals whose careers depend on maintaining voice quality and stamina, specialists at the Institute recommend a baseline evaluation along with guidance in voice preservation techniques and precautions. “It’s truly a bridge where art and science meet,” says Dr. Halstead. The Institute is working with the College of Charleston on ways for the professional to optimize vocal potential and is engaged in a study focusing on vocal tract dynamics of woodwind instrumentalists and singers,examining vocal fatigue, hoarseness, voice vibrato using imaging technology and multiple physiological signals. |
