British singer Adele has canceled the rest of her tour dates for 2011 just days after her album “21” began its 13th week at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 and her single “Someone Like You” began its fifth week atop the Hot 100, according to Billboard.com.
The singer received worldwide acclaim for her powerful pipes, and singers such as Britney Spears praised Adele for her “amazing voice”. But to others, included this blogger, it sounded like Adele was straining her voice to sing. It turns out we were right: Adele’s “amazing” voice was due to a medical condition called a vocal cord hemorrhage — otherwise known as a chronic sore throat.
In fact, Adele may have permanently ruined her stellar voice by continuing to sing in a register that put immense strain on her vocal cords. The increased stress on her vocal cords through singing caused tiny blood vessels to rupture and bleed inside her vocal cords.
A statement released by her publicist, stated Adele was scheduled to undergo surgery to repair her vocal cords. The first step in the treatment of vocal cord hemorrhage is to rest the voice. Normally, resting the vocal cords works in 90% of cases.
But in Adele’s case, resting her vocal cords failed to resolve her bleeding because the damage is so extensive.
According to Voice Medicine,
Voice rest alone is adequate treatment for a single, isolated hemorrhage. Repeated hemorrhage, on the other hand, always has an underlying cause, be it a harmful voice behavior or an irregularity on the vocal fold. In the first case, voice therapy may be useful, and in the second, microlaryngoscopy may be necessary to remove or repair any small irregularities or blood vessels prone to bleeding. This is among the more delicate surgeries in laryngology.
