Singer John Mayer Undergoes Vocal Cord Surgery

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.

Last week on Thurs, Oct 20, 2011, he underwent surgery to remove the granuloma and is now on strict voice rest for several weeks.

Though removal sounds like a great idea, vocal cord granulomas are notoriously difficult to eliminate completely as they have a high risk of recurrence. Strict voice rest as well as voice therapy helps as it eliminates the repetitive phonotrauma that promotes regrowth. Reflux control is also essential with medications. 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.

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


Read more about vocal cord granulomas here.

Read a NY Magazine article about his surgery.