Written by Professor Lucian Sulica
Lucian Sulica is the Sean Parker Professor of Laryngology and Director of the Sean Parker Institute for the Voice (https://voice.weill.cornell.edu/) at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. His practice is limited to voice disorders. He has a special interest in medical and microsurgical treatment of injuries of the vocal fold from voice use, particularly in performers, and in neurological voice disorders, including vocal fold paralysis and paresis, spasmodic dysphonia, and tremor. Dr Sulica has also been a leader in the development of procedures for the treatment of voice disorders in the office, without the need for general anaesthesia.
Lucian Sulica was educated at Dartmouth College, where he studied Mesoamerican archaeology, an interest he has maintained ever since. After several field seasons in Mexico, he turned his attention to medicine, receiving his medical degree and residency training in otolaryngology at Georgetown University, followed by a laryngology fellowship with Andrew Blitzer. He has been practising in New York since the end of his training, and at Weill Cornell from 2006.
Dr. Sulica received the American Laryngological Association’s Casselberry Award for distinguished research in laryngology in 2021, awarded only 27 times in its 105-year history, for work on the mechanics of vocal fold injury. His investigations have been devoted to establishing clear, evidence-driven principles for the treatment of voice conditions. They have addressed basic factors in injury from voice use including important gender differences, the pathophysiology and natural history of laryngeal nerve injury, diagnostic accuracy in voice disorders, and outcomes in surgical and behavioural treatment of benign vocal fold lesions. Dr Sulica has published frequently cited works on the safety and utility of vocal fold injection in the awake unsedated patient, the use of botulinum toxin for voice disorders, treatment of vocal fold paralysis, and a host of other topics. In all, Dr Sulica has authored more than 100 journal articles and 40 book chapters. He has co-edited three books, ‘Vocal Fold Paralysis’, ‘Classics in Voice and Laryngology’, and ‘Patologia Laringea y Fonocirugia’, the last in Spanish. He is as passionate about teaching as he is about clinical care and research, and has lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Australia.
Dr Sulica is the 2022-23 President of the American Laryngological Association, and is a Fellow of the American Laryngologic, Rhinologic and Otologic Society (the Triologic Society).