Voice after supracricoid laryngectomy: subjective, objective and self-assessment data.

Supracricoid laryngectomy (SCL) is an efficient surgical procedure for the treatment of selected laryngeal carcinoma, presently being performed not only in Europe but also in North America. The functional goals of the technique are voice and swallowing without a permanent tracheostoma. Perceptual and acoustic voice characteristics after SCL have been reported by different authors, but self-assessment data together with subjective and objective data have only been reported for a small number of subjects. Twenty male subjects, with a mean age of 71 years (range: 51-82 years) who underwent a SCL at least one year before our observation, were included in the study. Each subject underwent a flexible laryngoscopy and his voice was perceptually rated using the GRBAS scale. Objective examination included: maximum phonation time (MPT), voice spectrograms and syllable diadochokinesis on a single breath. Finally, each subject assessed his own voice using the Voice Handicap Index (VHI). The mean values of the GRBAS scale were respectively 2.4, 2.6, 2.4, 0.8, 0.5, 0.8. Mean MPT was 7.5 s, while for voice spectrograms the mean value of the Yanagihara scale was 3.7. Mean syllable diadochokinesis appeared as 3.3 syllables/s. Mean value of the VHI was 29.9. Subjective and objective data show a severely dysphonic voice after SCL; self-assessment data, on the contrary, reveal only moderate functional and emotional consequences. While perceptual, aerodynamic and acoustic data are in line with previous reports, self-assessment data were less severe in our subjects compared to what appears in the literature. It is concluded that self-assessment explores a different dimension of the patient's voice and that even if a severe dysphonia is present the consequences on everyday oral communication are only moderate.

Vestibular function and cochlear implant.

The authors illustrate their personal experience relating to 32 patients, aged between 12 and 74 years, undergoing cochlear implant, in whom vestibular reflexes were evaluated before and after surgery. This series did not include cases of areflexia, but only 1 case of reduced vestibular reflexia consequently to surgery. In this case, owing to the probable intervention of central compensation processes, labyrinthine hyporeflexia never became clinically significant. These personal results enable the authors to affirm that preoperative vestibular reflexes do not offer elements able to influence the choice of the ear in which to perform the cochlear implant. In the series of patients reported by the authors, a cochleostomy by removal of the floor of the round window niche, following the suggestions of O'Leary et al., always headed the electrode implant. This contrivance may reduce or eliminate the negative effects on vestibular receptors indirectly caused by the consequent and inevitable alteration of perilymph pressure produced by the implant.