Is a laryngoscopy considered surgery?
How long does a laryngoscopy take?
What is a throat scope procedure?
Are you awake during a laryngoscopy?
Laryngoscopy surgery for throat:
Laryngoscopy is performed to:
- diagnose a persistent cough, throat pain, bleeding, hoarseness, or bad breath
- check for inflammation
- discover a possible narrowing or blockage of the throat
- remove foreign objects
- visualize or biopsy a mass or tumor in the throat or on the vocal cords
- diagnose difficulty swallowing
- evaluate causes of persistent earache
- diagnose voice problems, such as weak voice, hoarse voice, breathy voice, or no voice
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Is a laryngoscopy considered surgery?
There are several ways your doctor may do this procedure:
Indirect laryngoscopy. This is the simplest form. Your doctor uses a small mirror and a light to look into your throat. The mirror is on a long handle, like the kind a dentist often uses, and it’s placed against the roof of your mouth.
The doctor shines a light into your mouth to see the image in the mirror. It can be done in a doctor’s office in just 5 to 10 minutes.
You’ll sit in a chair while the exam is done. Your doctor might spray something into your throat to make it numb. Having something stuck in your throat might make you gag, however.
Direct fiber-optic laryngoscopy. Many doctors now do this kind, sometimes called flexible laryngoscopy. She uses a small telescope at the end of a cable, which goes up your nose and down into your throat.
It takes less than 10 minutes. You’ll get a numbing medication for your nose. Sometimes a decongestant is used to open your nasal passages as well. Gagging is a common reaction with this procedure as well.
Direct laryngoscopy. This is the most involved type. Your doctor uses a laryngoscope to push down your tongue and lift up the epiglottis. That’s the flap of cartilage that covers your windpipe. It opens during breathing and closes during swallowing.
Your doctor can do this to remove small growths or samples of tissue for testing. He can also use this procedure to insert a tube into the windpipe to help someone breathe during an emergency or in surgery.
Direct laryngoscopy can take up to 45 minutes. You’ll be given what’s called general anesthesia, so that you will not be awake during the procedure. Your doctor can take out any growths in your throat or take a sample of something that might need to be checked more closely.
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How long does a laryngoscopy take?
Direct laryngoscopy can take up to 45 minutes. You’ll be given what’s called general anesthesia, so that you will not be awake during the procedure.
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What is a throat scope procedure?
During an upper endoscopy procedure, you’ll be asked to lie down on a table on your back or on your side. As the procedure gets underway:
- Monitors often will be attached to your body. This will allow your health care team to monitor your breathing, blood pressure and heart rate.
- You may receive a sedative medication. This medication, given through a vein in your forearm, helps you relax during the endoscopy.
- Your doctor may spray an anesthetic in your mouth. This medication will numb your throat in preparation for insertion of the long, flexible tube (endoscope). You may be asked to wear a plastic mouth guard to hold your mouth open.
- Then the endoscope is inserted in your mouth. Your doctor may ask you to swallow as the scope passes down your throat. You may feel some pressure in your throat, but you shouldn’t feel pain.
You can’t talk after the endoscope passes down your throat, though you can make noises. The endoscope doesn’t interfere with your breathing.
As your doctor passes the endoscope down your esophagus:
- A tiny camera at the tip transmits images to a video monitor in the exam room. Your doctor watches this monitor to look for abnormalities in your upper digestive tract. If abnormalities are found in your digestive tract, your doctor may record images for later examination.
- Gentle air pressure may be fed into your esophagus to inflate your digestive tract. This allows the endoscope to move freely. And it allows your doctor to more easily examine the folds of your digestive tract. You may feel pressure or fullness from the added air.
- Your doctor will pass special surgical tools through the endoscope to collect a tissue sample or remove a polyp. Your doctor watches the video monitor to guide the tools.
When your doctor has finished the exam, the endoscope is slowly retracted through your mouth. An endoscopy typically takes 15 to 30 minutes, depending on your situation.
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Are you awake during a laryngoscopy?
In Indirect laryngoscopy your doctor might spray something into your throat to make it numb, but in Direct laryngoscopy. You’ll be given what’s called general anesthesia, so that you will not be awake during the procedure.
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