{"doi":"10.1002/lary.70149","title":"Vocal Fold Scar Treatment via Controlled Dexamethasone Delivery With a Light‐Activatable Implant","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: Intralesional steroid injections for vocal fold (VF) scarring are rapidly cleared, limiting their effectiveness. This study evaluates the efficacy of a light-activatable dexamethasone implant compared to a single steroid injection for VF scar healing. METHODS: Ten rabbits underwent endoscopic VF injury and were treated with either a dexamethasone injection or a light-activatable implant; injured-only and no-injury VFs served as controls. On days 0 and 21, VF implants were irradiated with a near-infrared pulsed laser for 1 min. Larynges were harvested after 42 days. High-speed video (> 10 kHz) of excised larynges captured VF vibrations for kymographic analysis. Normal force, structural stiffness, and displacement were measured. Data were analyzed with appropriate statistical tests. RESULTS: Compared to injury-only VFs, implant-treated VFs demonstrated significantly reduced normal force and stiffness (5.28 ± 0.77 mN vs. 2.34 ± 0.66 mN, p < 0.0001; 17.74 ± 2.45 mN/mm vs. 6.80 ± 1.32 mN/mm, p < 0.0001), and increased displacement at 1.96 mN (0.14 ± 0.02 mm vs. 0.29 ± 0.05 mm, p < 0.0001) along the injury zone. Implant-treated VFs exhibited larger amplitude ratios and improved tissue architecture than untreated scars. No differences in quantitative measures were observed between implant-treated and injection-treated groups. CONCLUSION: A light-activatable dexamethasone implant improved VF biomechanics, vibratory behavior, and histological outcomes in a rabbit injury model comparable to a single steroid injection. This novel approach shows promise for delivering controlled, repeatable therapy to VF scars.","journal":"The Laryngoscope","year":2025,"id":542332,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9613,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1384577,"name":"Nour Awad","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1244893,"name":"Avery Zheng","orcid":"0009-0007-9875-4511","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":531967,"name":"Alexander Karabachev","orcid":"0000-0003-1747-1194","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383367,"name":"Charles Farbos de Luzan","orcid":"0000-0002-9163-6922","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":575003,"name":"Yoonjee C. Park","orcid":"0000-0003-1454-0326","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":968703,"name":"Gregory R. Dion","orcid":"0000-0003-4389-3104","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1244892,"name":"D. Cruz","orcid":"0000-0002-1289-6962","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:52:55.809501Z","pmid":"40964826","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}