”Why is your voice suddenly mute? Probably you caught a cold, take some cold medicine ……” “You have a sore throat? Talk less, rest for a few days and you’ll be fine ……” I believe many patients will hear others say this. When the voice suddenly becomes hoarse, many people will treat it as the aftermath of a cold or fatigue. But in fact, hoarseness is never as simple as we think. There are many diseases that can also cause hoarseness, such as laryngeal edema, vocal cord polyps, laryngeal white spots …… and even malignant tumors of the larynx. The causes of hoarseness are complex and can be broadly classified into two main categories. 1, the less severe symptoms are hoarseness caused by inflammation or edema, such as acute and chronic laryngitis and laryngeal edema caused by the flu. This type of hoarseness is most familiar to everyone and can usually be recovered after a period of symptomatic treatment and rest. There are also some occupation-related, such as teachers, actors, telephone customer service personnel and other people who usually talk more, due to excessive fatigue of the vocal cords resulting in hoarseness, which can usually be recovered with proper rest. 2, more serious hoarseness is caused by organic laryngeal lesions, including benign lesions such as vocal cord nodules and vocal cord polyps, precancerous lesions such as laryngeal white spots and laryngeal papillomas, and even malignant tumors of the larynx. Laryngeal cancer is the most common malignant tumor of the larynx, second only to nasopharyngeal cancer and thyroid cancer in terms of incidence rate among head and neck malignant tumors. Like many other diseases, the incidence of laryngeal cancer has also shown a younger trend in recent years. Since there are so many causes of hoarseness, how can I know which condition is actually causing me? For general inflammation, it can be improved or recovered in two weeks, unless there is a history of chronic laryngitis or pharyngitis. If the hoarseness is caused by excessive use of the voice, the tension in the vocal cords can also be relieved after two weeks of rest and recuperation. If hoarseness of unknown origin does not improve after two weeks of symptomatic treatment, then it must be taken seriously enough and should be considered for professional examination at a hospital ENT clinic, the simplest of which are indirect laryngoscopy, electron microlaryngoscopy, dynamic laryngoscopy, etc. Further examination methods such as laryngeal X-ray, CT or MRI can also be taken. In case of benign vocal fold polyps, they can be removed by electron microlaryngoscopy or supported laryngoscopy. For the diagnosis of tumor, the more accurate method is to perform “biopsy”, which is to remove a small piece of tissue from the questionable area and observe whether there are cancerous cells after pathology, this method can clearly distinguish whether the tumor is benign or malignant.