Impact of adenotonsillectomy on vocal emission in children

• Autor(a) principal: Dimatos,Spyros Cardoso
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Neves,Luciano Rodrigues, Beltrame,Jéssica Monique, Azevedo,Renata Rangel, Pignatari,Shirley Shizue Nagata
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1808-86942016000200151
• topic: Voice; Tonsillectomy; Adenoidectomy; Pharyngeal tonsil; Palatine tonsil

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Adenotonsillectomy is the most common surgery performed by otolaryngologists in pediatric age, and one of the most frequently asked questions about the postoperative period is whether there is a potential for change in vocal pattern of these children. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of adenotonsillectomy in the voice emission pattern of children with hypertrophy of palatine and pharyngeal tonsils. METHODS: This is a prospective study in which we carried out perceptual auditory assessments and acoustic analysis of 26 children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy at three time points: before surgery, one month and three months after surgery. The following acoustic parameters were estimated using the Praat software: fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, and harmonic-noise ratio. RESULTS: A statistically significant change was found between shimmer and harmonic-noise ratio during vowel /u/ production between the preoperative and 1st month postoperative time points. No significant differences were detected for acoustic parameters between preoperative analysis and that of the 3rd month post-operation. CONCLUSION: Transient changes in acoustic parameters occur in children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy submitted to adenotonsillectomy, progressing to normalization in the 3rd postoperative month.