Effect of voice rehabilitation on oral communication of Parkinson's disease patients.

Voice and speech disorders are common in Parkinson's disease patients and may lead to social isolation. We employed routine clinical voice therapy measures to evaluate the effect of voice rehabilitation. Twenty patients with a stable drug regimen participated in this study. The patients were assessed before and after a program of voice rehabilitation consisting of 13 group therapy sessions during 1 month, with emphasis on the increase in laryngeal sphincteric activity. Voice rehabilitation produced an increase in maximal phonation times, decrease in the values of s/z ratio and air flow, increase in vocal intensity, decrease in the complaints of weak and strained-strangled voice and monotonous and unintelligible speech and elimination of complaints of swallowing alterations. These data indicate a greater glottic efficiency after voice rehabilitation reflecting a more functional oral communication.

Recurrent laryngeal nerve section for spastic dysphonia: 5- to 14-year preliminary results in the first 300 patients.

This presentation compares the preoperative voice recordings and the latest follow-up voice recordings, made 5 to 14 years postoperatively, of the first 300 patients with various degrees of spastic dysphonia whom we treated with recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) sections from 1975 to 1982. Voice therapy was usually given afterward and in some patients, when necessary, "fine tuning" surgery was performed later. The 243 patients who could be located were asked to answer a questionnaire regarding their voice production and communication abilities, and to make a voice recording. The preoperative and long-term postoperative voice recordings were analyzed by means of perceptual voice evaluation and acoustic analysis of the voice spectra. Fifteen percent developed recurrence of mild to moderate spasticity 6 to 24 months after the RLN section. This was curable with laser vocal cord thinning via direct laryngoscopy. Eighty-two percent of patients had little or no voice spasticity 5 to 14 years after their RLN section. The experimental alternative of injecting botulin directly into the vocal cord to temporarily paralyze it is discussed.