The Beginning of Vocal Rehabilitation and Quality of Life of Laringectomated Patients

Mila Bunijevac^1*, Mirjana Petrovic-Lazic^2,3, Nadica Jovanovic-Simic² & Siniša Maksimovic¹

¹Public Health Hospital “St Vracevi”, Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
²Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
³ENT Clinic, Clinical Hospital Center “Zvezdara”, Belgrade, Serbia

Mila Bunijevac, JZU Hospital “St Vracevi” Srpske vojske 53, Bijeljina, Republic of Srpska Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Keywords: Larynx; Total Laringectomy; Voice Therapy; Quality of Life; HNQOL Scale

Abstract

Aim
The aim of this study is to examine the impact of vocal rehabilitation on the quality of life ofpatients after total laryngectomy.
Method
A subjective speech assessment was conducted by the University of Michigan Quality of Life Instrument - HNQOL. Respondents were given the task of choosing the offered answer for each of the above mentioned questions, expressing their opinion about the possibility or success of communication, the possibility of chewing/feeding food, pain and emotional state. In statistical processing, the arithmetic mean was used with the corresponding standard deviation, as well as the minimum and the maximum, then the frequency, percentages and t-test. The difference between the groups was tested using a single-factor variance analysis (ANOVA).
Results Based on the results achieved on the HNQOL scale, all respondents had a problem in the described domains before vocal rehabilitation, which negatively influenced their quality of life. After vocal rehabilitation, improvements were made on all the supplements as well as on the overall score.
Conclusion Vocal rehabilitation has positively influenced the quality of life of these patients and allowed return to normal life activities.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).