The Effect of Adenotonsillectomy on Korean Children's Voice / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES@#Adenotonsillectomy is a commonly performed surgical procedure carried out by otolaryngologists for children. Anatomical changes to the vocal tract occur after the surgery and may alter the patient's voice. This study evaluated the effects of adenotonsillectomy on the voice in Korean children.SUBJECTS AND METHOD: total of 20 children who underwent adenotonsillectomy were enrolled. The speech of patients was recorded before and at one month of the surgery and acoustic features, especially the formant frequency, were analyzed. Perceptual analysis was also carried out and the Pediatric Voice Handicap Index (PVHI) questionnaire was used to assess subjective changes in the children's voice and the effects of these changes on social functions.@*RESULTS@#Acoustic analysis revealed significant decreases in the vowel /i/ in the second formant, compact-diffuse, and grave-acute features of the voice (p=0.026, 0.022, and 0.031, respectively). A significant decrease was also observed in the intensity of the voice for the vowel /u/ (p=0.025). Perceptual analysis revealed that 86.6% of patients' voice recordings had post-operative changes. The mean preoperative PVHI score was 2.70±3.37, which decreased to 1.65±2.21 (p=0.011) after the surgery.@*CONCLUSION@#The results suggest that adenotonsillectomy affects Korean children's voices both acoustically and perceptually.