Advances in Medicine Lead Stars to Surgery

The rash of singers who have canceled concerts this fall to undergo throat surgery — Adele, Keith Urban, John Mayer — might suggest that touring takes a terrible toll on the vocal cords. Yet doctors who specialize on vocal issues point to something else to explain the cancellations: new diagnostic tools and surgical techniques. In the past a surgeon would cauterize the wound, sometimes with a carbon dioxide laser. But in recent years doctors at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital have started using a green laser that pulses light and heats the blood in the capillaries without damaging
the surrounding tissue. Steven Zeitels, HMS professor of surgery at MGH, is quoted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/arts/music/why-voices-of-singers-like-adele-and-john-mayer-are-stilled.html?_r=1