Swallowing before and after tonsillectomy as evaluated by surface electromyography.
OBJECTIVE
Surface electromyography (sEMG) was performed on adult patients (n = 40) following tonsillectomy to evaluate recovery by objective means.


METHODS
Evaluated parameters included timing of swallowing and continuous drinking, electric amplitude and graphic patterns of masseter (MS), and measurement of infrahyoid (INF) and submental (SUB) muscles after tonsillectomy and comparison with normative database.


RESULTS
The duration of drinking periods showed significant increase among patients; single-swallow durations remained normal. The electric activity of MS and INF muscles was significantly higher among the patients compared with normative database. It took one month until all the EMG data returned to normal.


CONCLUSIONS
Tonsillectomy affects muscle activity during swallowing by involving additional muscles in deglutition. EMG is a simple reliable method for postoperative evaluation and might contribute to comparative analysis of different tonsillectomy techniques. EMG can be used during pre- and postoperative stages to monitor recovery and functional improvement of throat muscles and deglutition.


CONCLUSIONS
The reported sEMG method and obtained data might be further used: 1) As an additional tool for comparison of different methods of tonsillectomy (eg, cold vs hot dissection, laser surgery, etc); 2) For further development of objective postsurgical pain assessment; 3) As an additional tool for assessment and development of less traumatic surgical technique; and 4) For monitoring of recovery in difficult cases.
Vaiman
Michael
M
Department of Otolaryngology, Assaf Harofe Medical Center, Affiliated to Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. vaimed@yahoo.com
Krakovski
Daniel
D
Gavriel
Haim
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003679:Deglutition / Q000502:physiology*; D004326:Drinking / Q000502:physiology; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007821:Laryngeal Muscles / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008406:Masseter Muscle / Q000503:physiopathology; D008564:Membrane Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D009129:Muscle Tonus / Q000502:physiology; D009334:Neck Muscles / Q000503:physiopathology; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology; D012008:Recurrence; D013997:Time Factors; D014068:Tonsillectomy; D014069:Tonsillitis / Q000601:surgery