Validity of Voice Handicap Index and Voice Analysis following Laryngeal Microsurgery for Benign Vocal Cord Lesions

Park, Young-Hak; Lee, Jeong-Hak; Joo, Young-Hoon; Park, Sung-Sin; Bang, Choong-Il; Kim, Min-Sik; Cho, Seung-Ho

J Korean Soc Laryngol Phoniatr Logop > Volume 16(1); 2005 > Article

Journal of The Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics 2005;16(1): 23-27.

양성 성대 질환 환자의 후두 미세 수술 전후 음성 장애 지수 및 음성 분석의 유용성

박영학¹, 이정학¹, 주영훈¹, 박성신², 방충일¹, 김민식¹, 조승호¹

¹가톨릭대학교 의과대학 이비인후과학교실
²가톨릭대학교 의과대학 음성언어클리닉

Validity of Voice Handicap Index and Voice Analysis following Laryngeal Microsurgery for Benign Vocal Cord Lesions

Young-Hak Park¹, Jeong-Hak Lee¹, Young-Hoon Joo¹, Sung-Sin Park², Choong-Il Bang¹, Min-Sik Kim¹, Seung-Ho Cho¹

¹Department of Otolaryngology-Head, School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea
²Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives
: Voice disorders can cause problems in patients with benign vocal cord lesions emotionally, physically, economically and functionally. Neither subjective nor objective voice examinations can evaluate such factors adequately. The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) subjectively evaluates voice disorders in terms of physical, functional, emotional factors and measures the patient's perception of the impact of voice disorder. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of VHI in the patients with benign vocal cord lesions.
Materials and Method
: The authors evaluated 37 patients who experienced laryngeal microsurgery for benign vocal cord lesions from september 2003 to August 2004. The VHI was used to measure the postoperative changes of the patient's perception and acoustic analysis and aerodynamic tests were also done. Statistical analysis was done using paired t-test and Pearson's correlation.
Results
: The VHI scores showed statistically significant reductions postoperatively. In acoustic analysis, jitter and shimmer had statistically significant reductions after surgery but noise-to-harmonics ratio did not. A statistically significant change in the average MFR and MPT perioperatively was found. The relationship between VHI and acoustic, aerodynamic analysis attained statistical significance.
Conclusion
: The VHI is a useful assessment tool to monitor the patient's self-perception of voice change after the surgery of benign vocal cord lesions. The VHI measurement, when combined with acoustic and aerodynamic analyses, will be helpful in comparing functional outcomes after voice surgery.

KEY WORDS： Voice disorders;Vocal cords;Microsurgery;Acoustics;