FUNCTIONAL OUTCOME AFTER SURGERY FOR PREVENTION OF PHARYNGOSPASMS IN TRACHEOESOPHAGEAL SPEAKERS .1. SPEECH CHARACTERISTICS

The speech characteristics of 29 patients with primary tracheoesophage al puncture who received either a pharyngeal constrictor myotomy, a un ilateral pharyngeal plexus neurectomy, or a unilateral pharyngeal plex us neurectomy with drainage myotomy limited to the cricopharyngeus wer e studied. All patients used a Blom-Singer low-pressure voice prosthes is. Audio recordings of each patient speaking with both the Blom-Singe r tracheostoma valve and manual occlusion of the tracheostoma were rec orded at 3 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months after surgery. The three sur gical variations were equally effective at preventing pharyngospasms; only 1 patient (10%) in each group had some loss of fluency during the 12-month study period. Neurectomized patients produced significantly higher fundamental frequencies during reading than did patients in the other groups. Residual resting tone in the neurectomized pharyngoesop hageal segment may contribute to more favorable speaking frequencies i n this group.