Laryngostroboscopic findings of singing students studying in Classical Turkish Music compared with Classical Western Music

Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare the laryngostroboscopic findings of singing students studying in different types of music. Methods: Randomly selected 46 singing students, 24 of them in Classical Western Music and the other 22 in Classical Turkish Music were taken under stroboscopic evaluation. Results: In Classical Western Music group normal stroboscopic examination was found in 10 students (41%). 14 students revealed abnormal findings including 11 laryngopharyngeal refluxes (45%), 5 vocal fold nodules (20%), one vocal fold polyp (4%) and one vocal fold cyst (4%). In Classical Turkish Music group normal stroboscopic examination was found in 15 students (68%). 7 students revealed abnormal findings including 7 laryngopharyngeal refluxes (31%) and one vocal fold nodule (4%). Conclusion: Laryngopharyngeal reflux was found to be the most common finding in both symptomatic and asymptomatic students. Benign vocal fold pathologies such as nodules, polyps, cysts and also laryngopharyngeal reflux were more frequent in Classical Western Music group. The difference was not statistically significant (p=0.13).