Introduction. Well-established esophageal voice and speech is the most
human-like form of communication of laryngectomized patients. Material and
Methods. The study sample consisted of 28 patients of the Department of Ear,
Nose and Throat, Clinical Center of Vojvodina in Novi Sad. All patients
underwent total laryngectomy because of laryngeal cancer previously
confirmed. The patients were divided into two groups based on the success of
mastering esophageal voice and speech, group 1 being successful and group 2
being unsuccessful. Results. All patients were subjected to total
laryngectomy and had their hyoid bone removed (100%). Esophageal speech was
rated excellent and good in 71% and 29% of patients from group 1,
respectively. There was no significant difference between the successful
(group 1) and unsuccessful group (group 2) in time when teaching began (c2
=5.14, p=0.023). Neither was there a statistically significant difference
between these two groups regarding the methods applied in teaching esophageal
speech (c2 = 2.02, p=0.155, which is greater than 0.05). Conclusion. The
effectiveness of teaching esophageal speech depends significantly on the
motivation of the patients. It was found that the patients who mastered
esophageal speech successfully had been learning it longer than those who did
not master it. The success in mastering esophageal speech did not depend on
whether the patients were trained individually or collectively, whereas
neither method of training was successful in group 2.
The role of pectoralis major myofascial flap in prevention of formation pharyngocutaneous fistula after total laryngectomy