[Possible factors influencing rehabilitation of the total laryngectomy patient using esophageal speech].
One of the handicaps of patients that have had a total laryngectomy is the loss of oral speech. There are three possibilities to rehabilitate these patients; surgery, voice prosthesis or esophageal speech. This last one appears as an inexpensive, non-invasive rehabilitation method; it does not need a complex learning and in spite of new technics, it continues to be an effective method in the social rehabilitation of laryngectomized patients. We have made a retrospective study of patients who underwent TL between 1992-1998 and that were rehabilitated by esophageal voice learning. Three factors have been evaluated: first, those related to the patient (gender, age, study level...); second, those related to the treatment itself [TL, pharyngolaryngectomy (PTL), TL plus radiotherapy...] and third, those related to the rehabilitation (technics, delayed on starting, number of sessions...). Data were compared with rehabilitation outcome: good (usually using esophageal voice), medium (speaking sometimes) and bad (not speaking). 74.1% had an acceptable outcome and they use esophageal voice with more or less difficulty to communicate, and this outcome increases to 95.8% when we do not take into account 7 patients who gave-up rehabilitation before finishing the first five sessions.
del Río Valeiras
M
M
Unidad de otorrinolaringología, Departamento de Dermatología y Otorrinolaringología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. mrioval@usc.es
Martín Martín
C
C
Pérez-Carro Ríos
A
A
Mínguez Beltrán
I
I
Rodríguez Martul
C
C
Bravo Juega
E
E
Labella Caballero
T
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003144:Communication Barriers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007825:Laryngectomy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010352:Patient Dropouts; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013072:Speech, Esophageal; D016896:Treatment Outcome