Possible factors of success in teaching esophageal speech.

INTRODUCTION Well-established esophageal voice and speech is the most human-like form of communication of laryngectomized patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study sample consisted of 28 patients of the Department of Ear. Nose and Throat, Clinical Center of Vojvodina in Novi Sad. All patients underwent total laryngectomy because of laryngeal cancer previously confirmed. The patients were divided into two groups based on the success of mastering esophageal voice and speech, group I being successful and group 2 being unsuccessful. Results. All patients were subjected to total laryngectomy and had their hyoid bone removed (100%). Esophageal speech was rated excellent afid good in 71% and 29% of patients from group 1, respectively. There was no significant difference between the successful (group 1) and unsuccessful group (group 2) in time when teaching began (chi2=5.14, p=0.023). Neither was there a statistically significant difference between these two groups regarding the methods applied in teaching esophageal. speech (chi2 = 2.02, p=0.155, which is greater than 0.05). CONCLUSION The effectiveness of teaching esophageal speech depends significantly on the motivatidn of the patients. It was found that the patients who mastered esophageal speech successfully had'been learning it longer than those who did not master it. The success in mastering esophageal speech did not depend on whether the patients were trained individually or collectively, whereas neither method of training was successful in group 2.