• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.99-103
• /
• 2014

A laryngeal web is connective tissue covered with epithelium stretching between both sides of the true vocal cords. Laryngeal webs were first reported by Fleischmann in 1882, and they cause upper airway obstruction and abnormalities of phonation. Congenital webs result from an arrest of reabsorption of the epithelium of the larynx at the tenth week of the fetus. The most common site of webbing is the anterior commissural glottic area, followed by other glottic areas and rarely subglottic or supraglottic areas. We have experienced two cases of congenital laryngeal webs. The webs were operated in two different methods. The first was excised under magnified vision through a laryngoscope, with a silastic keel secured between the raw surfaces of the separated mucosa. In the second case, the deepithelialized surfaces were exposed for a certain time length to mitomycin C to prevent postoperative webbing. We, hereby, report our experience of the diagnosis and management of two cases of a rare entity known as the congenital laryngeal web, and discuss the results with relevant studies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.51-55
• /
• 2007

Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of fresh versus frozen reconstituted botulinum toxin type A (BTX-A) for the treatment of adductor type spasmodic dysphonia. Materials and Methods: After reconstitution with normal saline, BTX-A was used within 4 hours or it was kept frozen in a consumer grade freezer at about $-25^{\circ}C$ for up to 4 months. Thirty patients with spasmodic dysphonia were randomly assigned and treated with the either fresh or frozen BTX-A. About 83% of injections resulted in a satisfactory outcome with 5.3 months of mean action duration. Treatment outcomes and side effects of total 161 injections were compared along the duration of keeping BTX-A frozen. Results: There were no statistical differences in the duration of action, self-rated satisfaction score, and the duration of hoarseness and/or aspiration between fresh and frozen BTX-A treated groups. No significant side effects were observed and the frozen BTX-A were proved to be free of bacterial contamination. Conclusion: After being reconstituted and kept frozen, BTX-A may be safely used for more than 4 months without significant loss of its effectiveness or additional side effects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.39-42
• /
• 2021

Granuloma is an uncommon benign disease that develops in the process of wound healing. Pharyngeal or laryngeal granuloma can be associated with gastric reflux, mechanical injury or trauma including intubation, voice abuse, or foreign body. 50-year-old female was transferred to our institute with a huge mass occupying the upper aerodigestive tract causing dysphagia. The patient has been suffering from a brain hemorrhage for several months and was kept in bed due to the quadriplegia with stuporous mental status, and was tracheotomized. On examination, the whole oropharynx and hypopharynx was covered by a smooth-surfaced soft big diffuse granular mass, which extended down to the upper trachea through the larynx. The huge granuloma was successfully removed with surgery and was found to have a pedunculating stalk on the oropharyngeal posterior wall with a small mucosal defect, suggestive of the origin of the mass. The defect was closed primarily after the cauterization. The patient is now followed up regularly without any recurrence of the disease.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.75-80
• /
• 2021

Background and Objectives Functional aphonia refers to in which by presenting whispering voice and almost producing very high-pitched tensed voices are produced. Voice therapy is the most effective treatment, but there is a lack of consensus for application of voice therapy. The purpose of this study was to examine the vocal characteristics of functional aphonia and the effect of voice therapy applied accordingly. Materials and Method From October 2019 to December 2020, 11 patients with functional aphonia were treated using voice therapy which was processing three stages such as vocal hygiene, trial therapy, and behavioral therapy. Of these, 7 patients who completed the voice evaluation before and after voice therapy was enrolled in this study. By retrospective chart review, clinical information such as sex, age, symptoms, duration, social and medical history, process of voice therapy, subjective and objective findings were analyzed. Voice parameters before and after voice therapy were compared. Results In GRBAS study, grade, rough, and asthenic, and in Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice, overall severity, roughness, pitch, and loudness were significantly improved after voice therapy. In Voice handicap index, all of the scores of total and sub-categories were significantly decreased. In objective voice analysis, jitter, cepstral peak prominence, and maximum phonation time were significantly improved. Conclusion The voice therapy was effective for the treatment of functional aphonia by restoring patient's vocalization and improving voice quality, pitch and loudness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.103-109
• /
• 2022

Background and Objectives The Voice Perceived Present Control scale (VPPC) has been developed to provide better insight into patients' perceived control over their thoughts or behaviors related to voice disorders. The objective of the present study was to validate the Korean VPPC (K-VPPC) by evaluating its internal consistency and reliability. Materials and Method All items of the English VPPC were translated into Korean. Content validity was analyzed through three Delphi survey rounds by an expert panel (n=44) with active clinical and research experience in treating dysphonic patients. Twenty-three patients with a heterogeneous diagnosis of dysphonia and twenty-three gender-matched vocally normal controls (total n=46) were asked to complete the K-VPPC and the Korean Voice Handicap Index-10 (KVHI-10). Psychometric properties including internal consistency and reliability were evaluated to examine the appropriateness of cross-cultural use of K-VPPC. Results Cronbach's alpha coefficient of K-VPPC was 0.89 for dysphonic patients, indicating good internal consistency in clinical samples. Furthermore, patients with dysphonia scored significantly lower on the total score of K-VPPC and higher on voice handicap than the vocally normal controls. Spearman's correlation coefficients indicated an inverse and moderate association between the K-VPPC and all domains of KVHI-10 (Spearman's r=-0.44- -0.68). Conclusion The findings of the current study indicated that the K-VPPC is a valid and reliable tool for the assessment of perceived control in Korean patients with dysphonia. Therefore, the K-VPPC could be a useful and complementary tool for the comprehensive evaluation of dysphonia, thereby improving care in Korean patients with voice disorders.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.33-42
• /
• 2012

Background and Objectives : Dysarthria refers to speech disorder that causes difficulties in speech communication due to paralysis, muscle weakening, and incoordination of speech muscle mechanism caused by damaged central or peripheral nerve system. Pitch, strength and speed are influenced by dysarthria during detonation due to difficulties in muscle control. As evaluation items, alternate motion rate and diadochokinesis have been commonly used, and articulation is also an important evaluation items. The purpose of this study is to find acoustic characteristics on sound production of dysarthria patients. Materials and Methods : Research subjects have been selected as 20 dysarthria patients and 20 subjects for control group, and voice sample was composed of bilabial, alveolar sound, and velar sound in diadochokinetic rate, while consonant articulation test was composed of bilabial plosive, alveolar plosive, velar plosive. Analysis items were composed of 1) speaking rate, energy, articulation time of diadochokinesis, 2) voice onset time (VOT), total duration (TD), vowel duration (VD), hold of plosives. Results and Conclusions : The number of diadochokinetic rate of dysarthria was smaller than control group. Both control group and dysarthria group was highly presented in the order of /t/>/p/>/k/. Minimum energy range per cycle during diadochokinetic rate of dysarthria group was smaller than control group, and presented statistical significance in /p/, /k/, /ptk/. Maximum energy range was larger than control group, and presented statistical significance in /t/, /ptk/. Articulation time, gap, total articulation time during diadochokinetic rate of dysarthria group was longer than control group and presented statistical significance. The articulation time was presented in both control group and dysarthria group in the order of /k/>/t/>/p/, while Gap was presented in the order of /p/>/t/>/k/ for control group and /p/>/k/>/t/ for dysarthria group. VOT, TD, VD regarding plosives of dysarthria group were longer than control group. Hold showed large deviation compared to control group that had appeared due to declined larynx and articulation organ motility.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.117-121
• /
• 2015

Background : Cepstral analysis which is obtained from Fourier transformation of spectrum has been known to be effective indicator to analyze the voice disorder. To evaluate the voice disorder, phonation of sustained vowel /a/ sound or continuous speech have been used but the former was limited to capture hoarseness properly. This study is aimed to compare the effectiveness in analysis of cepstrum between the sustained vowel /a/ sound and continuous speech. Methods : From March 2012 to December 2014, total 72 patients was enrolled in this study, including 24 unilateral vocal cord palsy, vocal nodule and vocal polyp patients, respectively. The entire patient evaluated their voice quality by VHI (Voice Handicap Index) before and after treatment. Phonation of sustained vowel /a/ sample and continuous speech using the first sentence of autumn paragraph was subjected by cepstral analysis and compare the pre-treatment group and post-treatment group. Results : The measured values of pre and post treatment in CPP-a (cepstral peak prominence in /a/ vowel sound) was 13.80, 13.91 in vocal cord palsy, 16.62, 17.99 in vocal cord nodule, 14.19, 18.50 in vocal cord polyp respectively. Values of CPP-s (cepstral peak prominence in text-based speech) in pre and post treatment was 11.11, 12.09 in vocal cord palsy, 12.11, 14.09 in vocal cord nodule, 12.63, 14.17 in vocal cord polyp. All 72 patients showed subjective improvement in VHI after treatment. CPP-a showed statistical improvement only in vocal polyp group, but CPP-s showed statistical improvement in all three groups (p<0.05). Conclusion : In analysis of cepstrum, text-based analysis is more representative in voice disorder than vowel sound speech. So when the acoustic analysis of voice by cepstrum, both phonation of sustained vowel /a/ sound and text based speech should be performed to obtain more accurate result.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.23-27
• /
• 2005

Background and Objectives : Voice disorders can cause problems in patients with benign vocal cord lesions emotionally, physically, economically and functionally. Neither subjective nor objective voice examinations can evaluate such factors adequately. The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) subjectively evaluates voice disorders in terms of physical, functional, emotional factors and measures the patient's perception of the impact of voice disorder. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of VHI in the patients with benign vocal cord lesions. Materials and Method : The authors evaluated 37 patients who experienced laryngeal microsurgery for benign vocal cord lesions from september 2003 to August 2004. The VHI was used to measure the postoperative changes of the patient's perception and acoustic analysis and aerodynamic tests were also done. Statistical analysis was done using paired t-test and Pearson's correlation. Results : The VHI scores showed statistically significant reductions postoperatively. In acoustic analysis, jitter and shimmer had statistically significant reductions after surgery but noise-to-harmonics ratio did not. A statistically significant change in the average MFR and MPT perioperatively was found. The relationship between VHI and acoustic, aerodynamic analysis attained statistical significance. Conclusion : The VHI is a useful assessment tool to monitor the patient's self-perception of voice change after the surgery of benign vocal cord lesions. The VHI measurement, when combined with acoustic and aerodynamic analyses, will be helpful in comparing functional outcomes after voice surgery.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.5-11
• /
• 1999

Background and Objectives : Recently, many people suffering from voice change visit otolaryngologist. So, it is important to study vocal function in patients with glottic or laryngeal disease. Aerodynamic investigation is valuable information about the efficiency of the larynx in translating air pressure to acoustic signal. The purpose of this study was to investigate the aerodynamic data in patients with vocal polyp, compare this data with that of the normal Korean. Materials and Methods : In aerodynamic study, maximum phonation time, mean air flow rate, phonatory flow volume and subglottal pressure were tested by using Aerophone II voice function analyzer in 157 normal korean and 143 patients with vocal polyp, aged from 20 to 69 years randomly selected. Results and Conclusion : In vocal polyp, maximum phonation time was significantly decreased and mean air How rate was increased. Phonatory flow volume was significantly decreased and subglottic pressure was increased only in female with vocal polyp. These data will be served as basic data of evaluation after treatment and postoperative assessment of the patients with vocal polyp.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.71-77
• /
• 2020

Background and Objectives OperaVOXTM (Oxford Wave Research Ltd.) is a portable voice analysis software package designed for use with iOS devices. As a relatively cheap, portable and easily accessible form of acoustic analysis, OperaVOXTM may be more clinically useful than laboratory-based software in many situations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the agreement between OperaVOXTM and Multi-Dimensional Voice Program (MDVP; Computerized Speech Lab) to assess voice quality before and after laryngeal microsurgery in patient with vocal polyp. Materials and Method Twenty patients who had undergone laryngeal microsurgery for vocal polyp were enrolled in this study. Preoperative and postoperative voices were assessed by acoustic analysis using MDVP and OperaVOXTM. A five-seconds recording of vowel /a/ was used to measure fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer and noise-to-harmonic ratio (NHR). Results Several acoustic parameters of MDVP and OperaVOXTM related to short-term variability showed significant improvement. While pre-operative value of F0, jitter, shimmer, NHR was 155.75 Hz (male: 125.37 Hz, female: 183.37 Hz), 2.20%, 6.28%, 0.16, post-operative values of these parameter was 164.34 Hz (male: 129.42 Hz, female: 199.26 Hz), 2.15%, 5.18%, 0.14 Hz in MDVP. While pre-operative value of F0, jitter, shimmer, NHR was 168.26 Hz (male: 135.16 Hz, female: 201.37 Hz), 2.27%, 6.95%, 0.26, post-operative values of these parameters was 162.72 Hz (male: 128.267 Hz, female: 197.18 Hz), 1.71%, 5.36%, 0.20 in OperaVOXTM. There was high intersoftware agreement for F0, jitter, shimmer with intraclass correlation coefficient. Conclusion Our results showed that the short-term variability of acoustic parameters in both MDVP and OperaVOXTM were useful for the objective assessment of voice quality in patients who received laryngeal microsurgery. OperaVOXTM is comparable to MDVP and has high intersoftware reliability with MDVP in measuring the F0, jitter, and shimmer