Volume 24, Issue 105, September - October, 2020

Voice and Speech Changes after Obstructive Sleep Apnea Surgery

Hatem Ezzeldin Hassan

Assistant Professor of Phoniatrics, ENT Department, Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University, Egypt; Email: hezzm268@yahoo.com

^♦Corresponding author
Hatem Ezzeldin, Assistant Professor of Phoniatrics, ENT Department, Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University, Egypt; Email: hezzm268@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Surgical intervention for patients with snoring and sleep apnea may change the voice acoustics and speech resonance. The objectives of current research is to study the changes in the acoustic characteristics of the voice and speech of the patients after surgical correction. This study included 52 adult patients (40 males and 12 females) with snoring and/or OSA syndrome. The patients ranged in age from 22 to 57 years. The patients were classified into three groups. Patients in group 1 had retro-palatal obstruction with redundant soft palate. Ten patients in this group also had large tonsils. Patients in group 2 presented with retro-palatal obstruction and had redundant soft palate. However, group 3 patients had retro-lingual obstruction because of a large tongue base. Group 1: 24 patients underwent uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP); Group 2: 16 patients underwent laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP) and Group 3: 12patients underwent tongue base suspension technique (TBS). The patients’ voices were subjected to acoustic analysis and Nasometric evaluation preoperatively and three months postoperatively. The results showed Formant changes occurred in patients subjected to TBS and no changes occurred in patients after UPPP and LAUP. We concluded that surgical intervention (UPPP, LAUP, and TBS) in sleep apnea patients results in mild voice and speech changes in some patients detected only by acoustic analysis of the patients’ voices.

Keywords: voice acoustics, snoring, sleep apnea, uvulopalatoplasty

Medical Science, 2020, 24(105), 2775-2781

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