Why does hoarseness occur due to a cold?

Colds are common diseases. General colds will not have much impact on the body, but long-term severe colds can induce serious sequelae. For example, encephalitis can be caused by severe colds. General effects such as hoarseness are not too serious, but you still need to understand the cause of hoarseness. Let’s take a look at why hoarseness occurs due to a cold.

1. Lesions of the vocal cord mucosa: The vocal cord mucosa has a certain degree of viscoelasticity. When speaking, the laryngeal joints and muscles move to bring the free edges of the glottis on both sides close to each other, causing the vocal cords to vibrate due to the Bernoulli phenomenon. Due to different vibration frequencies and intensities, different tones and sounds are produced. When there is a lesion on one or both sides of the vocal cord edge, whether it is inflammation, a neoplasm, etc., it will affect the vibration of the mucosal edge, resulting in a difference in vibration frequency on both sides, causing noise and manifesting as hoarseness.

2. Changes in vocal cord mass: The mass of the vocal cords on both sides should be consistent. When the weight is abnormal, such as submucosal edema, bleeding, and unilateral atrophy of the vocal cords, the weight of the vocal cords may change, affecting the elasticity of the vocal cords, causing disordered and unsynchronized vibration, murmurs, and hoarseness.

3. Vocal cord paralysis: Vocal cord movement is controlled by the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve and the recurrent laryngeal nerve, especially the latter. Regardless of the cause of recurrent laryngeal neuropathy, it can affect glottal movement. This is mainly because the paralyzed vocal cord muscle tension is weakened, affecting the vibration frequency. The vibration of the vocal cords is significantly affected, resulting in hoarseness.

4. Laryngeal cartilage muscle factors: The movement of the hyoid bone affects the quality of the sound. Under normal circumstances, the position of the larynx is stable and the external laryngeal muscles around the hyoid bone are active normally, which are important conditions for the pharynx to form a good resonance tube. If the hyoid bone cannot move normally, it will affect the function of the speech-forming organs and the vocal trachea, thus affecting voice production.