A hoarse voice after surgery is something that people sometimes complain about. Hoarseness after surgery can be temporary or permanent, and can be due to a number of reasons. In common most surgeries that cause hoarseness are performed under general anesthesia, in which a breathing tube is left in the throat during the duration of the surgery.
An endotracheal tube (purple) is a breathing tube placed in the mouth through the vocal folds into the trachea.
Because the endotracheal lies between the vocal folds, there are many ways this can cause hoarseness, including:
Hoarseness may be due to the type of surgery as well. Since the recurrent laryngeal nerve travels from the brain, through the neck, into the chest and then wraps around to control the vocalfolds, it can be damaged during a number of surgeries including.
Hoarseness after any of these surgeries may be temporary or permanent due to vocal fold immobility. Even if temporary, voice problems after these surgeries may be alleviated with a vocal fold injection which works immediately.
Hoarseness after surgery is often thought of as "normal" - however, it should be evaluated by a laryngologist or otolaryngologist. Often times a procedure or surgery can be performed which is minimally invasive but substantially improves the voice.