Pro athletes commonly undergo outpatient surgical procedures to repair the golden arms and legs that thrill stadiums full of fans. Now a growing number of professional singers are undergoing vocal cord procedures on an outpatient basis to save the platinum voices that electrify those same arenas. Such surgeries may very well become more common in the ambulatory care setting.

British soul sensation Adele, whose recent album 21 has broken sales records in her home country and debuted at No. 1 here in the United States, is the latest in a line of pop stars to undergo outpatient surgery to repair vocal cord damage.

The London-born singer-songwriter, who was forced to cancel the remainder of her 2011 tour after suffering 2 vocal hemorrhages, underwent a unique vocal cord microsurgery on Nov. 7 to stop recurrent bleeding from a benign polyp. The procedure was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital's Voice Center by the center's director Steven Zeitels, MD, FACS. Dr. Zeitels' growing list of famous patients also includes Julie Andrews, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and longtime Who frontman Roger Daltrey. According to the hospital, Adele is expected to make a full recovery from the laser microsurgery.

The news of the 23-year-old songbird's successful surgery came on the heels of reports that country singer Keith Urban is set to undergo a similar outpatient procedure this month to remove a polyp from his vocal cords. Grammy-winning singer John Mayer underwent surgery in October to remove a granuloma near his vocal cord.

Mark McGraw