Common causes of vocal cord paralysis include viral infections, along with tumors or cancers that can compress the recurrent laryngeal nerve, a branch of the vagus nerve (which provides specific innervation to the heart as well as other vital internal organs).

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Of 62 patients ranging in age from 11 months to 53 years, nearly half suffered from laryngeal edema -- a potentially fatal reaction in which the throat is obstructed by a swelling voice-box.

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Glitches, like the laryngeal nerves that are so neatly laid out in fish but that must detour in animals with necks by a crazy 15 feet (4.6m) in the case of giraffes demonstrate the incremental, undirected business of evolution in touching detail.

ECONOMIST: The evidence for evolution