Overview

A flexible nasendoscopy is a procedure that uses a camera to look at your vocal cords and larynx (voice box).

Benefits of a flexible nasendoscopy

A flexible nasendoscopy helps you and your speech language therapist to see how you use your vocal cords to produce your voice. This helps your therapist make treatment recommendations that will improve your voice.

If you’ve already had speech and language therapy, it’s also a useful way to check your progress.

Before the procedure

You can eat and drink normally before your appointment.

During the procedure

Putting the nasendoscope in

We use a thin, flexible tube with a camera at the end called a nasendoscope. We pass the tube and camera gently through your nose so that we can see your larynx. This may feel a bit uncomfortable but it should not hurt.

Keeping you comfortable

The process works best when you’re relaxed and breathing normally. If you have a strong gag reflex or if your nose is very narrow, it might feel more uncomfortable. Talk to us if you think this is true for you.

We might be able to apply a local anaesthetic spray to your throat or nose to make the area numb. This numbness lasts for about 30 minutes.

Checking your vocal cords

When the tube is in place, we’ll ask you to:

• say “ee” several times in different pitches
• speak – we might ask you to count to 5 or repeat some sentences
• try some voice therapy techniques, such as humming

We use the camera to take a video and some photos of your vocal cords. The camera uses a flashing light to take videos that look slowed down. This lets us see how your vocal folds vibrate in more detail. This technique is called stroboscopy.

The nasendocope is usually in your nose for 1 to 2 minutes. If we need to do a more detailed assessment, for example if we assess your singing, it can be there for up to 10 minutes.

Discussing your treatment

After the examination, we’ll talk about what we saw and discuss your treatment. If you want, we can show you the images we took with the nasendoscope.

The whole appointment can take up to 30 minutes.

After the procedure

You can leave hospital after your procedure.

If you had a local anaesthetic spray, avoid eating and drinking for 1 hour. Your throat and nose may still be numb.

Risks of a flexible nasendoscopy

A flexible nasendocopy is a very safe procedure.

During and after a flexible nasendoscopy, less than 1 in 100 people get:

• lightheaded or dizzy
• nosebleeds
• coughing
• vocal cord spasms

These side effects are not serious and usually go away within a few minutes.

Giving your permission (consent)

We want to involve you in decisions about your care and treatment. If you have questions after reading this leaflet, please ask your speech therapist or doctor before agreeing to the process. You can ask for the process to be stopped at any time.

Read more about our consent process.