Voicing Changes of Adult Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea hypopnea Syndrome (OSAHS) after H- uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (H- UPPP) / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate voicing changes of adult patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) before and after H-uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (H-UPPP). Methods 56 adult OSAHS pa-tients and 40 healthy people were included in the study. Acoustic parameters and formant frequencies were measured for each patient before and after H- UPPP, and also for the control group. Results Acoustic parameters: each group demonstrated no differences in all the parameters except for normalized noised energy (NNE). NNE increased after H-UPPP. Formant frequency: F1, B1, F2, B2, F3 of OSAHS patients were significantly lower than normal control. There was no significant difference in the formant frequency before operation and one week after; however, F1 and F2 were lower than the normal control one week after surgery. One month after surgery, F1 and F2 were ob-viously higher than that obtained in one week. All the other parameters compared with normal controls showed no significant discrepancies. Conclusion Acoustic characteristics of adult OSAHS patients were different from healthy person. After H-UPPP, the vocal tracts of patients changed, thus causing improvement to the acoustic parameters and voicing qualities, especially at the formant frequency. After the surgery, the formant frequencies of the patients increased gradually to the range of healthy people.