Speech Outcome in Oral Cancer Patients - Pre- and Post-operative Evaluation: A Cross-sectional Study.
OBJECTIVE
The tongue plays a major role in articulation. Speech outcome depends on the site of lesion, extent of resection, and flexibility of the remaining structures. The aim of this study is to evaluate the speech outcome measures such as sounds that are misarticulated and speech intelligibility and its connection to tumor site before and after surgery.


METHODS
Totally, 24 (12 pre- and 12 post-operative patients) patients who had buccal and tongue cancer underwent speech intelligibility rating and articulation screening.


RESULTS
The results show that the speech outcome is worse in postoperative patients when compared to preoperative patients. The articulation errors produced by tongue cancer patients were more than the errors produced in buccal cancer patients. The type of reconstruction also affects the speech outcome.


CONCLUSIONS
The perceptual analysis of oral cancer patients showed specific articulation issues and reduced intelligibility of speech in regards to site of lesion and type of reconstruction surgery. To reduce the speech errors, effective rehabilitation is recommended. A comprehensive speech evaluation and analysis of error patterns would help us in planning the rehabilitative measures of speech which is the most important factor in re-establishing interpersonal communication and well-being of the individual.
Department of Speech Language Pathology, Institute of Speech and Hearing, Madras Medical College, Chennai, Tamil, India.
Gomathi
G
Saravanan
Department of Speech Language Pathology, Institute of Speech and Hearing, Madras Medical College, Chennai, Tamil, India.
Venkatesan
V
Ranganathan
Department of Surgical Oncology, Government Royapettah Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Anitha
A
Gandhi
Department of Speech Language Pathology, Institute of Speech and Hearing, Madras Medical College, Chennai, Tamil, India.
V
V
Jaya
Buccal cancer; Glossectomy; Oral cancer; Reconstruction surgery