| Abstract: |
Recently there has been a trend to treat patients with advanced laryngeal cancer using chemoradiation with the intent of larynx preservation. While this is often possible, voice complaints and communicative disabilities frequently continue despite perceived improvement. This prospective study used acoustic, glottographic, and aerodynamic data in concert with phonoscopic examination to objectively assess vocal and laryngeal function before and after definitive successful chemoradiation treatment. Subjects included 9 men and 3 women who presented with advanced stage laryngeal carcinoma and moderate to severe dysponia. Posttreatment voices were compared with data obtained from a second group of 12 age- and sex-matched control subjects who had no vocal complaint. All acoustic indices of voice quality and several measures of vocal physiology showed significant improvement 1 month postchemoradiation. Nonetheless, several measures remained significantly different from those of the normal control group. It is hoped that further identification of post-treatment impairment in vocal physiology will aid the development of successful strategies to address residual and/or induced voice symptoms. |
