BACKGROUND Gaining a new voice is one of the major aims after total laryngectomy. The objective of this study was to describe the process and results of speech rehabilitation during the first year after surgery. METHODS Speech intelligibility was measured 6 months (n = 273) and 1 year (n = 225) after total laryngectomy. RESULTS Objective (23.4 to 47.5 points, p < .0001) and subjective (51.6...

Parkinson's disease related speech and voice impairment have significant impact on quality of life measures. LSVT(®)LOUD voice and speech therapy (Lee Silverman Voice Therapy) has demonstrated scientific efficacy and clinical effectiveness, but musically based voice and speech therapy has been underexplored as a potentially useful method of rehabilitation. We undertook a pilot, open-label study...

Treatment of small carcinoma of the larynx may lead to voice handicap and restricted quality of life. The relationship between the two is revealed. Sixty-five patients aged 62.1 ± 10.0 years rated their voice handicap and quality of life after treatment of T1 (n = 35) or T2 (n = 30) laryngeal carcinoma during regular out-patient examinations. For the self-assessment of the voice, the Voice Hand...

Many rehabilitation therapies ask patients to perform many exercises every day. This requirement strongly stresses the patient who often abandons the therapy too early. This is particulary true in speech therapy which usually has an estimated drop out before reaching the treatment goal of 65%, which is a very high number. In this paper we propose Euphoni, a system for distance care of voice pro...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study is to determine the accuracy of acoustic spectrography as an outstanding tool in the characterization and monitoring of esophageal voice. MATERIAL AND METHODS Our subjects were comprised of 33 laryngectomized patients (all male) that underwent qualitative acoustic (spectrography of vowel /a/ and a sentence), quantitative acoustic (phonation time, fundamental fr...

BACKGROUND Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of occupational dysphonia play a major role in voice self-assessment, which is one of the elements of a comprehensive evaluation of voice disorders. The aim of the study was to assess the applicability of the Vocal Tract Discomfort (VTD) scale to monitor the effectiveness of voice rehabilitation and compare the VTD results with objective and inst...

Surgical voice restoration with a tracheo-oesophageal fistula using an alloplastic voice prosthesis is the current standard in Germany for patients with laryngectomy. With the increasing widespread use of this type of rehabilitation new duties emerge, not only for ones colleagues in the hospital but also for those in general practice. Care of these patients close to their home must be the aim o...

The paper shows the methods for imaging power spectral density of speech and extracting formant frequencies from continuous voice. The methods will be used to improve the patients' rehabilitation after the total laryngectomy surgery. The adaptive algorithms and transversal filters were implemented to estimate the transfer function of human vocal tract model. The estimation methods were based on...

The speech therapy rehabilitation programme starts with diagnosis and continues during hospitalisation and after the patient's discharge. The distance from the rehabilitation centre can be an unfavourable element for the correct application of the whole protocol and the achievement of optimal functional results , particularly from a vocal point of view. Psychological support is important for co...

OBJECTIVE To assess long-term results with consistent use of indwelling voice prostheses (Provox; Atos Medical AB, Hörby, Sweden) for vocal rehabilitation after total laryngectomy. DESIGN Retrospective clinical analysis. SETTING Comprehensive national cancer center. PATIENTS Three hundred eighteen patients (261 men and 57 women; mean age, 62 years) from November 1988, through May 1999. ...