The Pharyngoesophageal Segment After Total Laryngectomy

The aim of the present study was to characterize the pharyngoesophageal segment in laryngectomees who rated themselves as functional tracheoesophageal speakers.

Voice perceptual assessment, high-resolution videomanometry of swallowing and phonation, and high-speed camera recording during phonation provided information about the anatomy and function of the pharyngoesophageal segment.

Fourteen patients were included in the study. The voice assessments presented high intra/inter-listener reliability. We found a significant correlation between roughness and poor voice quality, hyperfunction and poor intelligibility, and poor voice quality, long time since the operation, and old age. High-resolution videomanometry during phonation revealed decreasing mean pressures from the distal esophagus to the pharynx and confirmed low resting pressures at the pharyngoesophageal segment and low esophageal peristaltic contraction pressures after laryngectomy in comparison to normal subjects. The neoglottis shape was mainly circular and presented a strong mucosal wave in most of the patients on the high-speed camera recording.

Perceptual voice assessment and high-speed camera recordings provided baseline information about voice characteristics and vibration regularity of the neoglottis. Additionally, the quantitative measures obtained with high-resolution videomanometry may have clinical applicability as reference data in voice rehabilitation after total laryngectomy.