Preoperative and postoperative voice analysis of uvulopalatopharyngoplasty patients

While clinical studies almost universally report few speech and voice complications from uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, there is a paucity of prospective studies concerned with formal acoustic and perceptual evaluation of these patients. This study compares preoperative and postoperative recordings of 32 uvulopalatopharyngoplasty patients. Fast Fourier Transform analyses were made of both long-term spectra of a reading passage and the resonant characteristics of three vowels. Fundamental frequency and reading time were quantified. Polysomnographic studies of these patients were also compared. Finally, listener judgments of "better voice" were made on preoperative and postoperative pairs of the same patients performing a reading task. While the polysomnographic data demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the physical condition of the patients, no perceptual or acoustic measure of voice or speech was significant when preoperative and postoperative scores were compared.