Vocal Quality Assessment of Patients with Pituitary Adenomas Operated via Endoscopic and Microscopic Approaches

To evaluate whether there is any difference in voice quality between patients who were operated via microscopic and endoscopic approaches for pituitary adenomas.

The study group consisted of 59 patients and 30 healthy volunteers. They were all males and divided into three groups as; microscopically operated (MO) (n=30), endoscopically operated (EO) (n=29) and control (n=30). Subjective and objective voice analyses were performed.

There was no significant relationship within groups according to Voice Handicap Index-10 (p=0.053). Fundamental frequency, jitter %, jitter PQQ5 parameters revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between EO and MO groups. No statistically significant difference was observed within EO, MO and control groups with respect to harmonics-to-noise ratio median scores.

The present study assessed the effects of endoscopic and microscopic techniques for removal of pituitary adenomas on quality of voice. As it keeps the anatomically realistic model of sinuses and nasal cavity which provides resonance for the voice, endoscopic intervention found out to be superior by means of vocal quality.