Background: Previous studies have reported on the treatment of alaryngeal patients in order to improve their speech in several ways, but little focus was placed on esophageal speech. Objectives: To determine the time duration of esophageal speech training after which alaryngeal patients can speak, and to analyze the factors affecting esophageal speech training outcomes. Methods: A retrospective study, 29 alaryngeal patients who visited the Speech Clinic at Ramathibodi Hospital participated in the study. Data were collected from patients’ medical records after speech therapy with the esophageal speech and the combination of esophageal speech and electrolarynx. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Of 29 alaryngeal patients, 7 patients from the esophageal speech group and 6 patients from the combination of esophageal speech and electrolarynx training group could produce a first speech sound. The median duration of time that alaryngeal patients needed to speak after esophageal speech training was 11 weeks. Chemotherapy and the frequency of speech training sessions were factors that significantly affected the time durations needed by alaryngeal patients who succeeded in speaking because of esophageal speech training (P < .05). Alaryngeal patients who were not treated with chemotherapy and attended speech training sessions more than once per month had shorter time durations for esophageal speech training than the others. Conclusions: Alaryngeal patients could speak after esophageal speech training for at least 11 weeks. Chemotherapy and frequency of speech training sessions impacted esophageal speech training outcomes.
Background: Previous studies have documented the effectiveness of voice therapy in terms of voice quality outcomes rather than quality of life outcomes. Objective: To compare the quality of life among patients with voice disorders, before and after voice therapy. Methods: Thirty-six patients with voice disorders who visited the Speech Clinic at Ramathibodi Hospital from March 2013 to January 2015 were enrolled. Thirty minutes per session within 10 weeks period of voice therapy program were used. The voice therapy approaches included direct and indirect therapy. The outcomes of this study were measured using Dr. Speech software version 5 for acoustic analysis and the Voice Handicap Index in Thai version for quality of life. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics (Paired t test). Results: The total participants were 36 patients with a mean age of 51.31 years. They were divided to 4 groups according to the causes of voice disorders that were 18 patients for structural cause, 8 patients for functional cause, 6 patients for neurological cause, and 4 patients for inflammatory cause. The results for both voice quality and quality of life after voice therapy improved and showed statistically significant differences (P < .05). The patients with all causes of voice disorders were statistically significant differences in total the Voice Handicap Index scores (P < .05). Moreover the structural causes group exhibited statistically significant differences in all subscales (P < .05) but the others causes groups were not statistically significant differences in emotional subscale for functional causes, physical subscale for neurological causes, and functional subscale for inflammatory cause (P > .05) Conclusions: Voice therapy might be an effective treatment to decrease the severity of voice disorders in role of voice quality and quality of life, especially voice disorders from structural causes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.