Speech Analysis in Patients with Velopharyngeal Incompetence Following Surgical Correction

ABSTRACT

A total of 35 patients with velopharyngeal incompetence were treated by surgical correction from 1995 to 2001. Twenty-six patients underwent lateral port control superior based pharyngeal flap and 9 patients underwent sphincteric pharyngoplasty. Speech analysis and fluorolaryngo-graphy was performed preoperatively and postoperatively. The nasality of open vowel, round vowel and sentence and articulation accuracy in 26 patients who underwent the pharyngeal flap improved from 37.7+/-10.71%, 49.1+/-9.54%, 50.1+/-9.03% and 68.9+/-10.11% preoperatively to 20.4+/-9.77%, 25.4+/-10.11%, 38.5+/-9.34% and 80.1+/-6.47% postoperatively, and hypernasality and articulation accuracy improved significantly (p<0.05). In case of 9 patients who underwent sphincteric pharyngoplasty, results were from 41.2+/-11.27%, 42.4+/-17.04%, 53.8+/-7.63% and 72.3+/-10.87% preoperatively to 20.7+/-8.27%, 20.8+/-14.34%, 29.7+/- 11.47% and 80.7+/-12.47% postoperatively, and hypernasality improved significantly (p<0.05). As far as postoperative fluorolaryngography is concerned, the velopharyngeal space was closed in patients with postoperative normal range of nasality. In conclusion, these results suggest that patients with velopharyngeal incompetence will improve speech dysfunction effectively if is chosen appropriately either superior based pharyngeal flap or sphincteric pharyngoplasty.