According to the London Times, Steven Zeitels has developed a pulsed laser to treat delicate vocal cord disorders. He has published results from treating fifteen singers, including opera singer Carol Vaness, The Sound of Music’s Julie Andrews, and Aerosmith wailer Steve Tyler. It turns out that doctors from Britain are amazed by the results and will be in Boston to bring the technology home. Here are the details of Steve Tyler’s treatment:
“Zeitels’s latest success, Steve Tyler, lead singer of the rock band Aerosmith, goes back on tour next week. The frontman had to cancel 20 concerts on his last tour after a blood vessel popped on his right vocal cord and reduced his singing voice to a hoarse shrill. It was the result of 33 years of singing on stage.
Zeitels pointed his laser down Tyler’s throat on an operating table at Massachusetts general hospital and, using rapid-fire bursts of green light, sealed the blood vessel without touching it. The operation was so fast that there was no heat to inflame and damage Tyler’s vocal folds.
The treatment lasted barely half an hour. Tyler was told to rest his voice for three weeks before he started singing again…
He [Zeitels] has also used [the laser] to treat pre-cancerous lesions known as dysplasia. The lesions fall off after the treatment, with no permanent damage to the voice.”
The Boston Globe Magazine has more on Dr. Zeitels, who also has a laser laryngoscope named after him…
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