Standing laryngoplasty: When, why and what to expect?

Laryngoplasty is the most commonly used surgical treatment for recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) in sport and racehorses and is usually performed with the horse anesthetised in lateral recumbency. The technique was originally reported by Marks et al in 1970. Experimental studies using horses have documented the benefits of the laryngoplasty procedure. Post-operative loss of abduction is a well-recognised complication of the procedure. Many minor modifications ranging from number and type of sutures used and an anchoring process to minimise loss of abduction have been reported. Unilateral or bilateral ventriculectomy (VE) or ventriculocordectomy (VC) is generally performed with laryngoplasty to reduce noise. In addition, the timing of performing the ipsilateral VC procedure prior to laryngoplasty is an improvement that was recently reported ...