Tokyo Voice Center

Overview

Language plays an important role in the smooth running of our social lives. The source of that language is our voice, and a beautiful voice is considered to produce language which is easy to listen to. In recent years, occupations requiring the voice have been increasing in numbers, and voice has also come to take up an important role in pastimes such as karaoke. Meanwhile, the importance of acquiring an alternative voice for those who have lost their voice due to larynx cancer has come to be socially recognized.
In response to such demands of the times, the Tokyo Voice Center was established in 2001 by the International University of Health Welfare (IUHW) and Sanno Hospital as a voice center facility to provide comprehensive treatment to meet social needs. Tokyo Voice Center is the first facility in Japan, specializing in the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of laryngeal trouble and vocal disorder.
With Dr. Yusuke Watanabe, an expert on laryngeal diseases and vocal impairment, who is the center head since April 2012, doctors with expertise in various fields are focusing on phonosurgeries and voice rehabilitation, together with speech therapists and other medical staff.

Conditions treated at the Tokyo Voice Center

The Tokyo Voice Center is nation's leading institution for the diagnosis and treatment of vocal impairment and laryngeal diseases. Vocal impairment can often be found in individuals of the voice related occupations such as singers and performers, while larynx cancer and other laryngeal troubles are often seen in middle-aged and elderly person.
The Tokyo Voice Center focuses on these patients, and provides quality medical care, ranging from tests by laryngendoscope, voice acoustic examinations and surgical treatment using microlaryngoscopy for evaluation of the swallowing and respiratory functions related to laryngeal troubles and rehabilitation of speech impairment and speech difficulty.

Microlaryngoscopy

Microlaryngoscopy is a procedure to operate mainly on the vocal cord using a binocular microscope for vocal cord polyps and early-stage larynx cancer. It is a type of endoscopic surgery, and is occasionally called laryngomicrosurgery. The vocal cord is a small organ with a size of 1cm to 1.5cm. Diseases that are found in the vocal cord may be less than 1mm in size and cannot be operated with the naked eye. As the vocal cord is also a very precise organ that oscillates 100 to 250 times a second when one speaks, an accurate procedure is required for surgery that does not permit irregular movement of even less than 0.1mm. Microlaryngoscopy is conducted through a laryngoscope, a metallic tube inserted from the mount to the larynx. The operation, which is also called phonosurgery because it cures the voice, is a procedure requiring professional skills that can be performed here.

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation provided by the Tokyo Voice Center can be broadly categorized into rehabilitation related to vocal disorder and postoperative rehabilitation, and rehabilitation related to articulation disorder/speech difficulty (rehabilitation for speech developmental difficulty in infants, highorder functional disturbances such as alogia after suffering cerebral infarction and other cerebral vascular disturbances and brain damage). We have well-equipped training rooms where speech therapists provide sophisticated vocal and language rehabilitation.

Achievements in Test and Treatment at the Tokyo Voice Center

At the Tokyo Voice Center, we conduct over 400 phonosurgeries a year, one of the highest in Japan. We also provide voice rehabilitation for over 1,500 new patients a year.