KBB-Forum 2019 , Cilt 18, Sayı 2

VOICE THERAPY RESULTS IN PATIENTS WITH DYSPHONIA

Ody. Nedim TURGUT1, Dr. Onur İSMİ1, Dr. Yusuf VAYİSOĞLU1, Dr. Cengiz ÖZCAN1
1Mersin Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Kulak Burun Boğaz Hastalıkları Anabilim Dalı, Mersin, Türkiye Objectives: In this retrospective study, voice therapy results of the patients diagnosed as dysphonia were evaluated.

Materials and Methods: In this study 22 (13 maleand 9 female) patients who were diagnosed as dysphonia and who were undergone voice therapy between November 2016 and December 2017 after were enrolled to the current study. Direct/indirect voice therapy methods were applied at different time periods and intensites according to the dysphonia characteristics of the patients. To assess the results of therapy; vocal handicap index (VHI), maximum phonation time (MPT) and S/Z ratio were recorded before and after the therapy. In the statistical evaluations of the study results; descriptive statistical methods (percentage, mean, standard deviation) were used for interpreting the obtained data. To compare the measurements before and after the therapy "Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test" was used. P <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: The primary diagnosis of 22 patients who were enrolled to the study were as follows; 11 (50%) patients were diagnosed as vocal nodules (VN), 2 (9%) patients as with functional aphonia (FA), 3 (13.5%) patients as muscle tension dysphonia (MTD), and 6 (27.5%) patients as puberphonia (PP). Statistically significant differences (P <0.05) were found between the values of MPT, VHI and S/Z before and after voice therapies of VN patients. The post-therapy VHE and MFZ scores of the FA, MTD and PP patients were lower/higher compared to pre-therapy scores.

Conclusion: It can be stated that voice therapy is an effective treatment method in patients with dysphonia. In the clinical setting, the MPT, VHI and S/Z ratio can be used to follow-up the effectiveness of voice therapy. Keywords : Dysphonia, Voice therapy, Vocal nodule