Anatomy lesson

In the operating room, we can zoom in with either a microscope or in this case with an endoscope. This close up surgical view shows a capillary ectasia on the surface of the folds that is perhaps 1 mm or 1/16th of an inch across. Now only about 1/2 of the vocal folds fit on the picture. The endoscope also come in angled varieties allowing a view of the undersurface of the folds as well.

On the top is a photo of vocal folds seen by an examiner as if they were looking down the throat during surgery. We'll call this the operating room view. When using office equipment, the image is often viewed upside down on a TV monitor.

When using office equipment, the image is often viewed upside down on a TV monitor. We'll call this the office view. For this web site, all the photos will be viewed in the operating room view.