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pan european voice conference 2009

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Workshop (rep.): Current Challenges and Treatment Outcomes of Voice Disorders
Current Challenges and Treatment Outcomes of Voice Disorders
1 Current Challenges and Treatment Outcomes of Voice Disorders
Laishyang(Melody) Ouyoung 1
1 USC University Hospital, Los Angeles, USA, Speech Pathology, Los Angeles

Voice treatment outcomes are shown to be positive for vocal disorders of various etiologies.  Many of the same techniques for voice therapy can by applied across diverse patients resulting in improved vocal quality as measured by hoarseness.  Treatment outcome was additionally assessed by the severity of dysphonia as rated by the patient before and after therapy and satisfaction with voice outcome at termination of therapy.  The purpose of this study was to provide evidence of treatment outcome for voice disorders.  The voice outcome data of 39 patients (16 vocal abuse/misuse patients, 9 vocal trauma patients 7 head and neck cancer patients, 2 presbylaryngeus, and 5 neurologically involved patients) between the ages of 18 to 86 were selected within a three-year period.  Only those patients with completed voice outcome data for pre- and post-treatment were chosen.  Measurements of relative average perturbation (RAP) and pitch range (PR) were collected via Visi-Pitch to instrumentally determine objective progress. Self-perception of the severity of vocal disturbance before and after treatment and patient satisfaction with treatment outcome were also obtained.  Results indicated enhanced vocal quality as determined using both objective and subjective measures across all patients.  Negative implications of therapy were not found.  The current challenges to deal with spasmodic dysphonia both adductor and abductor will be included in this presentation. The speaker will present variety of voice disordered cases to the audiences. Such evidence supports voice treatment as an effective primary or adjuvant therapy to alleviate or possibly resolve organic and functional voice problems.