Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Vocal cord paralysis
Inability to move vocal cords
HP:0001605
What it means
A loss of the ability to move the vocal folds.
Vocal cord paralysis may lead to signs and symptoms such as hoarseness, inability to speak loudly, choking or coughing while eating with the risk of aspiration pneumonia. Affected patients may also experience breathing difficulties.
Rare diseases that can present with this20
Common30–79%
3Sometimes5–29%
12- Autosomal dominant Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2A2
- Early-onset progressive encephalopathy-hearing loss-pons hypoplasia-brain atrophy syndrome
- Glossopharyngeal neuralgia
- Hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies
- Hereditary pheochromocytoma-paraganglioma
- IgG4-related thyroid disease
- Machado-Joseph disease type 1
- Machado-Joseph disease type 2
and 4 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions, and Orphanet separately records 1 disease where this sign is specifically absent. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Laryngeal paralysis
Tracking symptoms like this for someone? Eleplan keeps symptoms, diagnoses, medications and every specialist in one plan.
Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.