<p>I just saw an interesting blog post that includes an interview with Dr. Zeitels, the surgeon who did Adele’s surgery…</p>
<p>…snip</p>
<p>Physicians say that there is no doubt that professional rock and pop singers on extended tours run a substantial risk of damaging their voices. The strain of singing full-voiced for an hour and a half is intense — as hard on the larynx as a professional football game is on a lineman’s body — and the vocal cords need time to recover after each performance. Dr. Zeitels, one of the leaders in his field, recommends that a rock singer not perform two nights in a row, though he concedes “that’s just not feasible.”</p>
<p>… snip</p>
<p>These are hard decisions to make, Dr. Zeitels said. The singers he has worked with — among them Julie Andrews, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Roger Daltry of the Who — say they and other pop vocalists often feel compelled, out of loyalty to fans, to perform even when they have upper respiratory infections, which is similar to a sprinter’s trying to run with an injured hamstring.</p>
<p>The most common problems for singers are benign polyps, cysts, granulomas and nodules, which are growths akin to calluses that develop on the vocal cords. All these can bleed under the demands of performance. The bleeding can lead to fibrosis, or scarring. The scars leave vocal cords less pliable and soft; the voice becomes hoarse and cracks.</p>
<p>Dr. Zeitels said the first tip-off for a singer was usually that his or her voice did not recover as quickly after a performance. A doctor used to look at the vocal cords using a handheld mirror, but in recent years small cameras attached to fiber-optic cables have been developed, which snake through the nose into the throat.</p>
<p>… snip</p>
<p>[Psychology</a> of Medicine: Why Voices of Singers Like Adele and John Mayer Are Stilled - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://psychologyofmedicine.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-voices-of-singers-like-adele-and.html]Psychology”>Psychology of Medicine: Why Voices of Singers Like Adele and John Mayer Are Stilled - NYTimes.com)</p>