Methods of speaking after laryngectomy

Allegra and colleagues from the  University of Catania, Catania, Italy compared the acoustic quality of the rehabilitated voice achieved with esophageal speech (ES) and tracheoesophageal speech (TES), and acoustic quality impacts on 67 laryngectomees.  The authors found a significantly better  functional voice performance in TES patients compared to ES.  However, there was no significant differences between the two groups in physical, emotional, and socioeconomic performance.

The authors concluded that the rehabilitation of laryngectomized patients must be addressed by a multidisciplinary team that considers the personalities, personal needs, and relational conditions of individual patients in order to determine and apply the phonatory rehabilitation method most suitable for achieving a better quality of life.