Substitution Voice Rehabilitation After Open Partial Horizontal Laryngectomy Through the Proprioceptive Elastic Method (PROEL): A Preliminary Study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to investigate the efficacy of the Proprioceptive Elastic Method (PROEL) in the rehabilitation of the substitution voice after open partial horizontal laryngectomy (OPHL). STUDY DESIGN: Prospective outcome study. METHODS: Fifteen patients surgically treated by OPHL type II or type III for laryngeal cancer were recruited (experimental group). Each patient underwent a specific program of voice rehabilitation based on the PROEL method with the same speech and language pathologist. Acoustic-aerodynamic analysis: maximum phonation time (MPT); spectrographic classification (Titze's modified classification), perceptual analysis (INFVo rating scale) and self-assessments (SECEL questionnaire) were performed before the treatment (T0), after 3 months of rehabilitation (T1), and at the end of the 6-month rehabilitation program (T2). A control sample of other 15 patients who underwent OPHL type II or type III and who underwent a standard perioperative rehabilitation was randomly extracted from an historical database and compared to the experimental group. RESULTS: Significative voice improvements between T0-T1 and T2 were found for acoustic, aerodynamic, perceptual, and self-assessments analysis in the experimental group. Significative differences were found between the experimental group at T2 and the control sample for aerodynamic, self-assessment, and perceptual analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study support PROEL method as an effective approach for substitution voice rehabilitation after OPHL type II and III. Randomized controlled trials on larger groups of patients are needed in future in order to compare PROEL with other rehabilitative approaches.

Voice Quality After a Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract Exercise With a Ventilation Mask in Contemporary Commercial Singers: Acoustic Analysis and Self-Assessments.

OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed at investigating the immediate effects of a semi-occluded vocal tract exercise with a ventilation mask in a group of contemporary commercial singers. STUDY DESIGN: A randomized controlled study was carried out. METHODS: Thirty professional or semi-professional singers with no voice complaints were randomly divided into two groups on recruitment: an experimental group and a control group. The same warm-up exercise was performed by the experimental group with an occluded ventilation mask placed over the nose and the mouth and by the control group without the ventilation mask. Voice was recorded before and after the exercise. Acoustic and self-assessment analysis were accomplished. The acoustic parameters of the voice samples recorded before and after training were compared, as well as the parameters' variations between the experimental and the control group. Self-assessment results of the experimental and the control group were compared too. RESULTS: Significant changes after the warm-up exercise included jitter, shimmer, and singing power ratio (SPR) in the experimental group. No significant changes were recorded in the control group. Significant differences between the experimental and the control group were found for ΔShimmer and ΔSPR. Self-assessment analysis confirmed a significantly higher phonatory comfort and voice quality perception for the experimental group. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study support the immediate advantageous effects on singing voice of a semi-occluded vocal tract exercise with a ventilation mask in terms of acoustic quality, phonatory comfort, and voice quality perception in contemporary commercial singers. Long-term effects still remain to be studied.

Estudio de la resonancia de la voz hablada y cantada en cantantes no profesionales después de usar técnicas de impedancia vocal / Study of the resonance of the spoken and sung voice in non-professional singers after using vocal impedance techniques

La resonancia es la herramienta que permite a los cantantes alcanzar la máxima eficiencia de la voz con el mínimo esfuerzo. Una voz resonante siempre llama la atención, es más atractiva y atrayente. En un cantante es fundamental pues hará resonar al que escucha, produciendo una sintonía física y emocional. Objetivos: Determinar la capacidad de mejora que pueden tener las técnicas deimpedancia vocal sobre la voz de cantantes; y determinar la relación que existe entre una buena percepción auditiva y la ganancia de una voz resonante rica en armónicos .Material y métodos: Se realizó un ensayo clínico aleatorio, donde las variablesindependientes fueron hidrobalones (Balón Regulable IntraOral o BRIO), máscaras de reanimación y cámaras de resonancia. Para el análisis de las técnicas de impedancia vocal participaron 14 sujetos de género femenino (10) y masculino (4) con un rango de edad de 31 a 62 años que forman parte de dos coros distintos. Los participantes fueron divididos de forma aleatoria en dos grupos: experimental y control, que posteriormente fueron comparados. Nos comprometimos a dar estimulación a toda la muestra, por lo que realizamos dos estudios más. Un segundo estudio donde comparamos toda la muestra tras la estimulación con el grupo control que teníamos en un inicio. Y un tercer estudio valorando el grupo control antes y después de la estimulación. El grupo experimental realizó 3 sesiones de 45 minutos cada una, donde se emplearon tres técnicas de impedancia, BRIO para aumentar la cavidad oral, máscaras de reanimación que amplían la cavidad faríngea y cámaras de resonancia que mejoran la percepción auditiva. El segundo grupo únicamente tenía que cantar todos los días 10 minutos, al tiempo que tenía lugar el tratamiento del grupo experimental. De manera previa y posterior al tratamiento, los sujetos fueron valorados por medio de endoscopia y análisis acústico...(AU)