role of pharyngeal repair on acoustic characteristics of tracheoesophageal voice

ABSTRACT

The tracheoesophageal puncture [TEP] technique for voice restoration is a successful way of providing voice rehabilitation after total laryngectomy. Because postoperative voice quality can vary significantly depending on which type of hypopharyngeal repair is chosen, the aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of these repairs on the TEP voice after total laryngectomy. In this study, the TEP voice was quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated in 20 patients using Provox 2 A registerd prosthesIs after standard total laryngectomy. The patients were divided according to the type hypopharyngeal repair into four groups [five cases for each]; A pharyngoesophageal myotomy, B pharyngeal plexus neurectomy, C non-muscle repair, and D transverse repair. The groups were compared with each other for different voice parameters. The acoustic results of the four pharyngeal repair groups did not reveal significant difference for most of the voice parameters. Primary TEP voice restoration is recommended as it offers several advantages; 1. I simple, effective and not time consuming, 2. It is a low morbidity procedure, 3. It is cost effective as it eliminates a secondary procedure for voice restoration and reduces prolonged speech therapy sessions, 4. Early voice production gives the patient a psychological boost which improves convalescence. All used methods of pharyngeal repair succeeded to prevent postoperative neopharyngeal spasm