Sam Smith has successful cord surgery

Happy birthday to singing sensation Sam Smith, who turned 23 on Tuesday and is recovering from successful vocal cord surgery in Boston.

Massachusetts General Hospital announced that Smith underwent laser microsurgery, performed by Steven Zeitels, at the hospital's Voice Center to stop a recurrent problem of vocal cord bleeding.

Zeitels expects the Grammy-honored blue-eyed soul singer to make "a full recovery" from the surgery.

Smith's condition is the "result of unstable blood vessels in the vocal cord that can rupture and prevent vocal performance," the hospital statement said. Smith went to Boston to consult with Zeitels, the director of the voice center and a professor of laryngeal surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Zeitels, who pioneered procedures for benign and malignant cord problems, uses specialized lasers to stop singers' vocal cord bleeding.

He's also performed the procedure for other vocalists, including Steven Tyler, Lionel Richie, and Smith's fellow Brit, pop princess Adele. All then returned to performing, the hospital said.

And by the way, vocal cord surgeries, such as removing polyps or lasering blood vessels, are not confined to top-flight singers like Smith and Adele, says Michael Pitman, an expert in voice restoration and director of the Voice and Swallowing Institute at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.

"Vocal cord trauma can happen to anybody, and the majority of patients seen for this are not professional singers," Pitman says. "It's the number one laryngeal surgery that everyone does around the country."

Smith has been open on social media about his vocal-cord issues and his regret about cancelling performances.

He was cheerful enough on Tuesday to tweet about his birthday and his father.

Earlier, on Monday, he went down memory lane.

Smith delighted the crowd at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday with a video of himself accepting the award for top male artist using cue cards for his thank-you "speech."