Effects of suture tension during unilateral cricoarytenoid lateralization on canine laryngeal resistance in vitro

Objective— To evaluate the effect of abduction suture tension for unilateral arytenoid lateralization on laryngeal resistance. Study Design— Experimental study. Animals— Canine cadaver larynges (n=16). Methods— Laryngeal resistance was calculated in all specimens with the epiglottis in open and closed positions. Left cricoarytenoid lateralization was performed under low or high suture tension, and laryngeal resistance was re‐calculated. The effects of suture tension on laryngeal resistance were evaluated by repeated measures ANOVA. Results— Cricoarytenoid lateralization under low or high suture tension significantly reduced laryngeal resistance with the epiglottis in an open or closed position. There was no difference in laryngeal resistance with an open epiglottis between the low‐tension (1.00±0.0001 cm H₂O/L/s) and high‐tension (1.10±0.35 cm H₂O/L/s) groups (P=.33). The low‐tension group (22.80±14.20 cm H₂O/L/s) had significantly greater laryngeal resistance than the high‐tension group (8.45±4.00 cm H₂O/L/s) with a closed epiglottis (P=.016). There was no difference in laryngeal resistance with a closed epiglottis for the low‐tension group before (34.30±36.50 cm H₂O/L/s) and after (22.80±14.20 cm H₂O/L/s; P=.42) arytenoid lateralization. Conclusions— Cricoarytenoid lateralization under low suture tension significantly reduced laryngeal resistance with an open epiglottis, but resulted in a significantly greater resistance with a closed epiglottis than cricoarytenoid lateralization under high suture tension. Clinical Relevance— Clinically, use of a low‐tension suture for cricoarytenoid lateralization may provide an adequate decrease in open‐epiglottis laryngeal resistance to alleviate clinical signs, while maintaining enough closed‐epiglottis laryngeal resistance to reduce the risk of postoperative aspiration pneumonia.