Community Conversation => Transitioning => Voice Therapy and Surgery => Topic started by: Rachelicious on August 28, 2014, 06:15:54 PM Return to Full Version

Title: Trach shave - cricoid cartilage
Post by: Rachelicious on August 28, 2014, 06:15:54 PM
Since the main reason I hear for getting a trach shave is to reduce the thyroid cartilage and change it to a female angle if needed, I'm curious to what extent it can be performed on the cricoid cartilage.

My thyroid cartilage is fairly insignificant, but my cricoid cartilage (located 2-3" below) is prominent enough that I'd reduce it if it's no major risk to the voice (doing Yeson not long after.) Has anyone here had a trach shave done primarily to reduce cricoid cartilage? If so, how did it go?
Title: Re: Trach shave - cricoid cartilage
Post by: kelly_aus on August 28, 2014, 07:02:41 PM
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F8%2F8a%2FLarynx_external_en.svg%2F500px-Larynx_external_en.svg.png&hash=e5fa598c5365b80c039ca10216c3a5d1b4d14dd8)

Umm, are you sure it's your cricoid cartilage? As the trachea is below the cricoid cartilage, not above as you indicated in your post.
Title: Re: Trach shave - cricoid cartilage
Post by: Rachelicious on August 28, 2014, 07:41:44 PM
Please re-read, I said nothing to the effect of the trachea being above anything. The cricoid cartilage is lower than the thyroid cartilage.

Diagrams can be deceiving. The images on the page below depict more clearly what cartilage, specifically, I'm referring to:

http://healthfixit.com/cricoid-cartilage/