Costs and effects of tracheoesophageal speech compared with esophageal speech in laryngectomy patients.
The hospital costs and the effects on speech are compared for tracheoesophageal (TE) speech and esophageal (E) speech in laryngectomy patients. TE-speech is more intelligible and the rehabilitation is faster (four versus nine months), but it is more expensive for the hospital. E-speech needs more speech rehabilitation sessions (average of 23,422 BF/patient) than TE-speech (7,157 BF). TE-speech involves primary (6,192 BF) or secondary placement (25,357 BF), replacement (average of 19,443 BF/patient/year) and in about ten percent closure of the fistula (39,135 BF/patient) and switching over to E-speech. On the basis of these data the expected average costs per patient can be calculated. These are definitely higher for the TE-speech than for E-speech.
Kesteloot
K
K
Center for Health Services Research, K. U. Leuven, Belgium.
Nolis
I
I
Huygh
J
J
Delaere
P
P
Feenstra
L
L
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007825:Laryngectomy / Q000191:economics / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D007831:Larynx, Artificial; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013072:Speech, Esophageal / Q000379:methods*