The French way of voice rehabilitation post total laryngectomy: current clinical practices and tendencies

Abstract

Background

Vocal rehabilitation post total laryngectomy (TL) lacks clinical guidelines, especially with the presence of multiple modalities.

Objectives

To describe the tendencies of vocal rehabilitation post TL in France and compare it with other countries. We try to identify the most practiced modalities and recognize statistically significant influencing factors.

Materials and methods

An electronic anonymous survey was answered by 75 ENT surgeons from France. The survey outlined the common practiced vocal rehabilitation modalities and had two versions depending on if the participant practices the tracheoesophageal speech (TES) or not.

Results

96% use TES in their practice. Single modality TES and double modality TES with esophageal speech (ES) are the two most practiced modalities. 99% agreed that there is no age limit for the TES. Single modality ES was offered 92% more when more than 10 TL were performed per year (p < .05). No influencing factors found for single modality TES or double modality TES with ES (p > .05).

Conclusion: In line with tendencies from other countries, the TES is the most practiced modality of vocal rehabilitation coupled or not with the ES. TES has no age limit as per our participants. The least practiced modality is the singe modality ALS.

Chinese Abstract

背景：缺乏全喉切除术 (TL) 后的声音康复的临床指南, 尤其是在多种方式并存的情况下。

目的：描述法国 TL 后声音康复的状况, 并将其与其它国家进行比较。 我们尝试确定最常用的方式并识别统计上显著的影响因素。

材料和方法：来自法国的 75 名耳鼻喉外科医生回答了一项电子匿名调查。 该项调查概述了常用的声音康复方式, 并有两个版本, 具体取决于参与者是否使用气管食管言语 (TES)。

结果：96% 的人在他们的行医实践中使用 TES。 单一方式 TES 和具有食管言语 (ES) 的双方式 TES 是两种最常用的方式。 99%的参与者都认为 TES 没有年龄限制。 当每年进行超过 10 次 TL 时, 单一方式 ES 的提供率增加 92%（p=.05 ）。

结论：与其它国家的状况一样, TES 是最常用的声音康复方式, 无论它是否与 ES 一起运用。 根据我们的参与者, TES 没有年龄限制。 最少使用的方式是单一方式 ALS。

Keywords:

• Total laryngectomy
• voice prosthesis
• vocal rehabilitation
• tracheoesophageal puncture
• head and neck

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).