Multicenter prospective study on the use and outcome of rehabilitation after total laryngectomy in Germany

Abstract

Background The purpose of this study was to assess the use and outcome of rehabilitation after total laryngectomy in Germany. Methods We enrolled patients who were scheduled for total laryngectomy, approached them again after surgery, after 3 months and 1 year. Patients completed questionnaires and were interviewed. Results Of 309 participants, 14% had not received any rehabilitation. Reasons for nonuse were primarily ongoing treatment and poor health. Users of rehabilitation had 4 times the odds of attaining any ability to speak compared to nonusers (odds ratio 3.8, P = .02). The main aim of rehabilitation from the perspective of the users was speech rehabilitation, mentioned by 71% before starting rehabilitation. This was also what most users (27%) found the most helpful part of rehabilitation. Conclusions Patients are interested in attending rehabilitation. They especially want to improve their speech capacity, which indeed is better among users of rehabilitation than in those without.

Awareness, offer, and use of psychosocial services by breast cancer survivors in Germany: a prospective multi-centre study

“…Another interesting point is that the services best known were located in rehabilitation clinics but these services were considered not as helpful by the users than other services. It is possible that this is related to (a) the short duration of stays in the clinic with only limited time for consultations and (b) to the fact that everybody receives such offers, independent of their own wishes [ 9 , 48 , 49 ]. While this procedure has its value in making patients familiar with services, it is probably inherent that the helpfulness is evaluated less favourably.…”

The influence of vocal rehabilitation methods on communication in patients with total laryngectomy

“…From the 309 participants included in their study, only 14% did not receive rehabilitation until the end of the first postoperative year. In the first six months, approximately 47% of patients used one of the alternative communication methods -voice prosthesis, electrolarynx or esophageal speech 13 . Comparatively with these results, in our study almost 40% of patients were without postoperative rehabilitation.…”

Subjektive Bedeutung des Riechverlusts nach Laryngektomie

“…Maßgebliche Erkenntnisse zur stimmlichen, beruflichen sowie psychosozialen Rehabilitation und QoL bei Laryngektomierten in Mitteldeutschland bringt die Forschung der Arbeitsgruppe (AG) Singer/Meyer hervor [5,27,28]…”