Background and Objectives: Benign vocal cord lesions that are not responsive to medical and/or speech therapy are often treated by microlaryngeal surgery. The purpose of this study is to measure selected acoustic parameters to document
quantitative changes in vocal quality before and after microlaryngeal surgery and to analyze differences of prognosis for various benign vocal cord lesions, such as vocal cord polyp, vocal cord nodule, and Reinke's edema. Materials and
Methods:
The authors used a computerized acoustic analysis program (CSL-MDVP) to measure mean fundamental frequency (Fo), jitter, shimmer, and noise to harmonics ratio (NHR) from voice samples of selected patients who had benign vocal cord lesions before
and
after at least 10 weeks of surgery. Results: The values of Fo and NHR showed no significant difference in all three groups. There was significant improvement in nodule regarding jitter. Also, there was significant improvement in the vocal
cord
polyp regarding jitter and shimmer. Conclusion: Jitter and shimmer will be effective acoustic parameters in documenting the quantitative changes in vocal quality before and after microlaryngeal surgery.
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