Hoarseness, more properly termed Dysphonia, is a voice alteration which may be due to different diseases.
Causes of Dysphonia
The most common cause is acute laryngitis, caused by inflammation of the vocal cords during a viral infection or overuse of the voice. When the disturbance persists over 2-3 weeks is necessary to explore the vocal folds to rule out the presence of nodules mainly, cysts and polyps of vocal folds, caused or favored by poor vocal technique, and chronic laryngitis or laryngeal tumors, basically related to tobacco.
The treatment of dysphonia depends on the cause and may require speech therapy (and / or rehabilitation of voice) and even vocal cord surgery.
Dysphonia in children
In children with persistent or recurrent hoarseness there are often vocal nodules or congenital lesions, and a part of their treatment must bed done a hearing study because if the child does not hear well also tends to force more his voice. However, laryngoscopy under the age of 7-8 years-old is sometimes difficult due to lack of child collaboration.