Failures and miss’ outs in voice patients

Round table /

Chairman: W. Wellens

Participants: M. De Bodt, F. de Jong, P. Kooijman, K. Van Lierde
Every voice therapist might be confronted with questions about failure of expected results from therapy with a particular patient.
When looking for answers multiple causes have to be taken into account.
Correct diagnosis is a primary requisite for successful therapy management.
Therapy oriented diagnostics should be based as well on a topographic as on a functional analysis of the dysphonia and of the vocal tract. This requires a multidisciplinary evaluation in communicative interplay of all parts: referrer, voice therapist and patient.
Failure of therapy results might require the reconsideration of the initial diagnosis.
Inadequate delineation of the therapy goals and/or the wrong choice of the most appropriated strategies for modification may be causes of failure.
All voice experts involved in diagnostics and in therapy management must be competent and skilled in voice disorders in order to guarantee successful therapy outcome.
Some patient characteristics and psychosocial factors can enhance therapy failure.