After laryngoscopic intubation and videolaryngoscopic intubation comparison of preoperative and postoperative voice analysis

Objective: Intubation is one of the important steps of surgery. Since it is a process taking place in the larynx, mucosal damage due to trauma may occur in the structures in the larynx. We think that vocal cord mucosal trauma will be less in videolaryngoscopic intubation (VLE) than in laryngoscopic intubation (LE), thanks to the optical system at the tip of the blade. In this study, we aimed to compare the voice analyzes after both laryngoscopic intubation and videolaryngoscopic intubation. Material and Method: Patients who underwent tympanomastoidectomy surgery at Dicle University Ear, Nose, Throat and Head and Neck Surgery Clinic between December 2023 and June 2024 and whose informed consent was obtained were included in the study. Videolaryngoscopic intubation was performed in 30 patients, and laryngoscopic intubation was performed in 30 patients. Intubation was performed by the same anesthesiologist and with the same protocol. Voice analysis was performed on the patients on preoperative day 1, postoperative day 1 and day 7. For each measurement, jitter, shimmer, Harmonic-Noise Ratio (HNR), basal frequency (F0), S/Z ratio, GRBAS, Sound Handicap Index-10 (SHE) parameters were examined. Voice analysis was performed by a single speech and language therapist. Results: In our study, we did not detect any significant difference in the comparison between the two groups in the voice analysis parameters after VLE and LE. In our study, objective parameters such as decrease in fundamental frequency (F0), decrease in HNR, and increase in jitter and shimmer on the first postoperative day in both groups; We detected an increase in the subjective parameters SHE-10, S/Z and GRBAS, but we found that these parameters returned to normal on the 7th postoperative day, approaching preoperative values. Conclusion: We find that in both intubation methods, there is a change in the voice analysis parameters on the 1st postoperative day due to the trauma to the vocal cords, but on the 7th postoperative day, this change approaches the preoperative values again due to the decrease in the effect of trauma. In our study, we report that there is no difference between the two groups in terms of voice analysis. Since there is no similar study comparing videolaryngoscopic intubation and voice analysis after laryngoscopic intubation, we think that our study will contribute to the literature in this field.