Objective aerodynamic and acoustic measurement of voice improvement after phonosurgery

Hypothesis Objective analysis of the outcome of phonosurgery is needed to a llow comparison of different surgical techniques or indications, or both. W e tried to demonstrate that measurement of mean oral airflow during the pro duction of a sustained vowel could be used in combination with acoustic mea surements such as jitter or shimmer for assessment of voice improvement aft er phonosurgery. Study Design: This prospective study included 27 consecuti ve patients who underwent phonosurgery during a 3-month period. Method: Per ceptual analysis served as the "gold standard." Objective measurements (ora l airflow,jitter, shimmer) on the most stable portion of a sustained vowel \a\ were made using the EVA system (SQ-Lab, Aix-en-Provence, France). Resul ts: Oral airflow was significantly greater in patients with poor perceptual results than in patients with good perceptual results, Jitter and shimmer were not significantly different because of the dispersion of the values. D iscriminant factorial analysis showed that a combination of jitter, shimmer , and oral airflow was able to identify patients with good or poor perceptu al results in 77% of cases. Conclusions Oral airflow allows simple, quick, and reliable assessment of the outcome of phonosurgery and can be used in e veryday clinical practice.