The management of unilateral vocal cord palsy by augmentation using autologous fat

Augmentation of the vocal cord with Teflon paste has been one of the mainstays of treatment of a unilateral vocal cord palsy. Recently the licence for Teflon in the UK has been withdrawn, creating the need for an alternative. Over the last 2 years we have been using autologous fat harvested from the abdominal wall for this purpose. Fat is more difficult to work with than Teflon and we have developed a modified injection gun in order to facilitate the injection of the fat. The technique has been used in 14 patients with improvement of the voice in eight.