Singer John Mayer Has Recurrence of Vocal Cord Granuloma

In September 2011, grammy-award winning singer John Mayer announced the cancellation of a number of concerts as well as an album due to the development of a vocal cord granuloma of his voicebox. Read a blog article about this.

On Oct 20, 2011, he underwent surgery to remove the granuloma and was on strict voice rest for several weeks with plans to resume live singing in the first quarter of 2012.

Unfortunately, on March 9, 2012, it was found that his vocal cord granuloma has recurred in the same location. In a statement he publicly released:

"Because of this, I have no choice but to take an indefinite break from live performing. Though there will be a day when all of this will be behind me, it will sideline me for a longer period of time than I care to have you count down."

 Is this unusual that his vocal cord granuloma recurred?

Unfortunately, it is not...

Vocal cord granulomas are benign masses that commonly are due to repetitive mild vocal trauma resulting in exuberant growth of a specific region of the voicebox lining. An imprecise analogy of what a granuloma is would be a keloid of the skin. Unfortunately, such repetitive mild vocal trauma includes talking/singing, hence the high risk of recurrence. The key to treatment is to allow the granuloma site to heal COMPLETELY prior to any further phonotrauma (ie, talking/singing).

Strict voice rest as well as voice therapy helps as it eliminates the repetitive phonotrauma that promotes regrowth. Reflux control is also essential. However, it is not unusual that steroid injections to the granuloma site as well as even botox injection to partially and temporarily paralyze the vocal cord may need to be pursued for complete resolution. Laser and mitomycin C application has also been found to be helpful.

Surgical removal of the granuloma may have looked something like this video...

To summarize, the steps followed when a granuloma-like mass is discovered on exam is as follows:

1) Trial restricted voice use and reflux medications. Voice therapy also strongly recommended. Strict voice rest is preferred if possible.

2) If no improvement after a period of time, surgical excision to ensure it truly is a granuloma and not cancer or some other pathology

3) Follow-up with steroid injections to the granuloma site. Watch video below.

4) Botox injection can be considered which chemically prevents complete vocal cord adduction preventing the repetitive trauma to the granuloma site.

5) Re-excision may be required at which time mitomycin C application can be tried.

Read more about voicebox granulomas.

Source:

John Mayer's Granuloma Returns, Singer Taking "Indefinite Break From Live Perfoming". E Online 3/9/12