Hoarseness is the most common symptom in disease of the larynx. A clinicostatistical analysis was performed on 995 cases who visited O.P.D. of Otolaryngology of Busan National University Hospital with chief complaint of hoarseness during past 5 years. The results were concluded as follow : 1) Among the total out-patients of 21,975 the patients with chief complaint of hoarseness were 955 cases (4.4%). 2) The underlying disease causing hoarseness in order of frequency were 206 cases in chronic laryngitis, 161 cases (16.9%) in laryngeal polyp, 161 cases (16.9%) in laryngeal nodule, 115 cases (12.0%) in malignant tumor of larynx, 71 cases (7.4%) in vocal cord paralysis, 48 cases (5.0%) in acute laryngitis and 37 cases (3.9%) in laryngeal tuberculosis. Among the patients of hoarseness, 70 cases (7.3%) had normal finding of larynx. 3) Among the total 955 cases, male were 559 and female were 396, the ratio being 1.4 : 1. The ratio of male to female were 4.2 : 1 in malignant tumor of larynx, 3.1 : 1 in laryngeal tuberculosis, 2.4 : 1 in laryngeal papilloma, 2.2 : 1 in vocal cord paralysis but not significant in others. 4) The age incidence was decreased 5th decade (24.1%), 4th decade (22.0%) and 6th decade (19.5%) in order. 5) The highest incidence of duration from the manifestation of hoarseness to visit our O.P.D. was 1-3 months in 190 cases (19.9%). Number of patients who visit hospital within 10 days after onset were 71 cases (8.3%) and over 3 years were 106 cases (11.1%). 6) Associated symptoms with hoarseness in decreasing order were sore throat, foreign body sensation, sputum, dyspnea, swallowing difficulty and coughing. But 433 cases (45.3%) had symptom of hoarseness only. 7) 119 cases (12.5%) with hoarseness were admitted to the hospital, among them 41 cases (34.5%) were acute simple inflammation, 30 cases (26.1%) were benign tumor, 22 cases (19.1%) were malignant tumor of larynx. 8) Surgical operation was performed in 296 cases (31.2%). The most of them were removal of polyp, nodule and papilloma of the larynx (91.2%) and these cases were performed microsurgically under suspension laryngoscopy. 9) Among the malignant tumor of larynx, 106 cases (92.2%) were squamous cell carcinoma, 8 cases were undifferentiated cell carcinoma and one case was maligant melanoma. |