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ASA NEWSLETTER
 
 
July 1998
Volume 62
Number 7
 

Lewis H. Wright Memorial Lecture: Steven M. Zeitels, M.D., to Present 'The Origin and Development of Laryngoscopy and Laryngology'

Kathryn E. McGoldrick, M.D., Chair
Lewis H. Wright Memorial Lectureship Committee
Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology



The Lewis H. Wright Memorial Lecture, sponsored annually by the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, honors its namesake, an indefatigable pioneer in American anesthesiology who was devoted to enhancing the stature of anesthesiology as a clinical science and medical specialty. A dynamic innovator, Dr. Wright was a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Wood Library-Museum and, in later years, served as its President-Emeritus. He was also a founder of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists in 1955, working in close collaboration with Harold Griffith, M.D.

This year's distinguished lecturer is Steven M. Zeitels, M.D., Associate Professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Medical Director of the Voice and Speech Laboratory at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, Massachusetts. His lecture, titled "The Origin and Development of Laryngoscopy and Laryngology," will be delivered during the ASA Annual Meeting on Tuesday, October 20, 1998, at 1 p.m. in the Orlando/Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Zeitels has an extensive list of impressive achievements since his graduation from Boston University School of Medicine in 1982. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and his areas of subspecialization are laryngology (including professional and performing voice disorders) as well as head and neck oncological surgery. Dr. Zeitels serves as the laryngologist and teaches courses on the anatomy and physiology of the larynx, voice production and caring for the voice of the performing artist at the following institutions: New England Conservatory, Tanglewood Music Program, Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory. He has also lectured in the Department of Linguistics at Harvard University as well as at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A prolific writer, Dr. Zeitels has also published more than 60 scientific manuscripts and chapters related to laryngology and head and neck surgery.

Dr. Zeitels is the consummate innovator. He instituted and directs one of the few postresidency fellowship programs in laryngology in the United States. Moreover, he has introduced a number of creative procedures for improved microsurgical management of the vocal folds (phonomicrosurgery) and paralytic dysphonia. Dr. Zeitels recently received notification that he is the 1998 recipient of the Casselberry Award from the American Laryngological Association for designing a new (and highly successful) corrective procedure for paralytic dysphonia. This procedure, called an adduction arytenopexy, is used in conjunction with implant medialization for paralyzed vocal folds. In this procedure, the arytenoid cartilage is repositioned into a more normal position for laryngeal sound production. Dr. Zeitels also received special recognition by the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological (Triological) Society for his thesis on the microsurgical management of early vocal cord cancer. This tour de force involved designing a new technique for microsurgical excision of selected vocal cord cancers that leaves the patient with a conversationally normal voice. Additionally, Dr. Zeitels is the principal investigator for a project in the area of endoscopic reversible laryngeal closure to prevent chronic aspiration. Dr. Zeitels also directs a Spasmodic Dysphonia Clinic where he injects botulinum toxin into the vocal folds, a therapy that typically restores near-normal speech to individuals afflicted with this debilitating disorder.

A popular and engaging speaker who is sought after internationally, Dr. Zeitels has lectured in lands as distant as Auckland, New Zealand, and as close to home as Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he moderated a session on laryngeal transplantation.

In addition to his passion for opera and other vocal forms, Dr. Zeitels is an enthusiastic and accomplished historian who is an authority on such revered figures as Chevalier Jackson, Alfred Kirstein and Gustav Killian. Dr. Zeitels' numerous and eclectic interests will, no doubt, contribute to a fascinating lecture on laryngoscopy from the surgical perspective in general, and through his unique prism in particular.


Kathryn E. McGoldrick, M.D., is Professor of Anesthesiology at Yale University School of Medicine and Medical Director of Ambulatory Surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut. She is a Trustee of the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.
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