Speech capacity in patients with voice disorders before and after surgical treatment of vocal fold tumors

Inroduction. Pathological characteristics of voice and speech in persons with benign and malignant vocal fold tumors present as different variations in the voice pitch, intensity and quality. The aim of the study was to determine the speech capacity of persons with malignant and benign vocal fold tumors before and after surgical treatment and to establish if there are differences in the speech capacity in relation to the type of tumor. Material and Methods. The sample included 67 subjects who were divided into two groups: group I - subjects with benign tumors, vocal cord lesions (polyps, cysts) and Reinke?s edema and group II - subjects with malignant tumors, aged 23 to 74 years (mean age 55.43; standard deviation 11.95). Acoustic voice analysis, maximum phonation time of the vowel /a/, analysis of temporal speech organization, and sentence melody analysis were used for measuring the speech capacity. Results. Before surgery, the speech capacity in both groups of patients was almost equal, without statistical significance between the compared groups. After surgery, there was a statistically significant difference between the speech capacity in the examined groups, with better speech capacity observed in group I (t = -3.807, p < 0.001). The study did not show an isolated effect of time or tumor type on the speech capacity, but showed a combined effect (F = 10.079, p = 0.002). Conclusion. The proposed method for the assessment of the speech capacity before and after surgical treatment of vocal fold tumors is a useful tool for the prediction of the voice outcome and in planning rehabilitation procedures.