Evaluation of treatment efficiency in patients with dysphonia

SUMMARYEVALUATION OF TREATMENT EFFICIENCY IN PATIENTS WITHDYSPHONIAÖzgür UğurtayIn this study; the efficiency of treatment methods were investigated in patients withdysphonia by means of 7 different evaluation methods. The differences involving allevaluation parameters were evaluated by comparing pretreatment and posttreatmentevaluation data.The study was conducted with 27 patients of which 23 were having benign vocal foldlesions and 4 were suffering from bilateral vocal fold paralysis.All patients were comprehensively evaluated by Voice Handicap Index, GRBASscale, acoustical analysis, maximum phonation time, videolaryngostroboscopic assessmentsand image analyses with area and angle calculations on videolaryngostoboscopic images. Allthese data were separately recorded. After the comprehensive evaluation, voice therapy withor without surgery and/or medical therapy was used for the treatment of patients with benignvocal fold lesions. In patients with vocal fold paralysis, voice treatment was given inconduction with posterior cordotomy surgery. All patients were included in the voicerehabilitation program for 3 months. After this treatment, all patients were evaluated with thesame investigation protocols and the results were recorded.The results of all evaluation protocols before and after the treatment were statisticallyevaluated. In patients with benign vocal fold lesions, it was found that the evaluationparameters were significantly improved as compared to the pretreatment data. These resultswere paralelled to the decrease in the perception of dysphonia.The correlation between all evaluation parameters before and after treatment werealso investigated. It was found that the evaluation parameters were significantly correlatedwith each other in patients with benign vocal fold lesions.It was concluded that, voice rehabilitation conducted with appropriate treatmentprotocols was effective in the treatment of dysphonia. Since the evaluation parameters usedin this study showed a significant correlation between each other, it was also concluded thatthose parameters were very effective in voice evaluation and they should be used in everypatient with dysphonia fort he correct diagnosis and treatment planning.