title: Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of some vocal function parameters following fitting of a prosthesis.
abstract: The insertion of a prosthesis and restoration with pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps for patients subjected to total pharyngolaryngectomy is a technique now universally accepted; however the literature on the subject is lacking. Our study considers 10 patients subjected to total pharyngolaryngectomy and restoration with pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps who were fitted with vocal function prostheses and a control group of 50 subjects treated with a total laryngectomy without pectoralis major myocutaneous flaps and who were fitted with vocal function prostheses. Specific qualitative and quantitative parameters were compared. The quantitative measurement of the levels of voice intensity and the evaluation of the harmonics-to-noise ratio were not statistically significant (p > 0.05) between the two study groups at either high- or low-volume speech. On the contrary, statistically significant differences were found (p < 0.05) for the basic frequency of both the low and the high volume voice. For the qualitative analysis seven parameters were established for evaluation by trained and untrained listeners: on the basis of these parameters the control group had statistically better voices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Cavalot
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palonta
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Preti
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nazionale
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ricci
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vione
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Albera
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cortesina
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D007825:Laryngectomy / Q000379:methods; D007831:Larynx, Artificial; D008297:Male; D010369:Pectoralis Muscles / Q000637:transplantation*; D010611:Pharyngectomy / Q000379:methods; D017755:Prosthesis Fitting; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013997:Time Factors; D014833:Voice Quality