Steve Granitz/WireImage.comAfter Adele scrapped all of her 2011 U.S. tour dates and promotional appearances because of throat problems, the British singer traveled to Boston yesterday to fix her chart-topping voice. Why Beantown? Because that's the home of the Massachusetts General Hospital, where a futuristic surgery involving lasers is used to rescue the world's best cords. "Adele underwent vocal cord microsurgery by Dr. Steven Zeitels to stop recurrent vocal cord hemorrhage (bleeding) from a benign polyp. This condition is typically the result of unstable blood vessels in the vocal cord that can rupture," the Massachusetts General Hospital wrote in a statement (via Los Angeles Times). "Dr. Zeitels expects Adele to make a full recovery from her laser microsurgery."
For singers, this is like the musical equivalent of the career-saving Tommy John surgery in baseball. Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, a Boston native, was among the first to undergo a similar procedure under Zeitels' watch in 2006, and his voice has been fine since. (The same can't be said about Tyler's face.) With so many artists currently struggling with serious vocal cord issues -- John Mayer, Kiss' Paul Stanley, Keith Urban and Chris Cornell, to name a few — Zeitels can expect his surgical schedule to mirror that of Tommy John innovator and pitcher fixer Dr. James Andrews.
Adele is still on strict orders to rest and recuperate, so she'll still be out of order until 2012. With a full recovery expected, fans can look forward to Adele finally delivering on her U.S. tour -- plus 24 or 25 or whatever age she releases her next album -- in the near future.