Acoustic rhinometric study of the nasal cycle in tracheostomized and laryngectomized patients

ABSTRACT

This study was performed on 13 postoperative tracheostomized cases, 11 postoperative laryngectomized patients and 10 control subjects. Acoustic rhinometry was used to determine minimum nasal cross- sectional area and nasal cavity volume as indices of nasal patency. Testing was repeated at an interval of 30 minutes over a period of 3-8 hours. The results demonstrated that there was normal cyclical fluctuations in nasal patency after airflow deprivation by tracheostomy and laryngectomy albeit of lower amplitude than normal. Different patterns were recorded with an irregular pattern being the most frequent pointing to crucial role of peripheral receptors on central controlling mechanism. The cycles tended towards normality sometimes after surgery. This interval was longer after laryngectomy compared with only tracheostomy indicating that even minimal airflow through the nose may be enough to stimulate nasal receptors and reestablish a trend towards normality