Laryngeal Biomechanics

Abstract

The authors must be congratulated for the beauty of the illustrations used in this elegantly printed book, which sets forth the primary author's view of laryngeal function as the interreactions between a series of eight folds within the larynx (the "eight-fold way" it is called at one point). These folds consist of the paired vestibular, the paired aryepiglottic, the median thyrohyoid, the interarytenoid, and the paired vocal folds. The major aspects of laryngeal behavior result from their interaction. The "eightfold way" concept is an interesting one, for fold plication plus rotational movements about the cricothyroid and the cricoarytenoid articulations, to mention only two, do offer an intriguing view of actions that have indeed seemed increasingly inadequately described in terms of sphincteral closure mechanisms. The authors' theses are not in the mainstream of current laryngeal re search, however, and some specific objections may be made to them. The larynx is described