Impact of Thyroid surgery on Voice: A prospective study

Thyroidectomy is one of the most common neck surgery done worldwide. It is associated with debilitating post-operative voice changes even without recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) injury. Aims and Objectives: To study the impact of thyroidectomy on voice parameters in the absence of Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve and External Branch of Superior Laryngeal Nerve injury and comparison between the pre and post-operative changes in the subjective and objective voice parameters. Methodology: Patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria underwent thyroidectomy. The Subjective voice assessment was done using Voice Impairment Score (VIS) and objective parameters were analyzed using Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP) pre-operatively and post-operatively at 1 week, 1 month and 3 months interval. Results: On MDVP analysis of patients, a fall in Mean F₀ (Hz), Minimum F₀ (Hz) and Maximum F₀ (Hz) values was noted at 1 week after surgery. But a trend toward the pre-operative values was observed at 3 months post-operatively.