TY - JOUR ID - 18632 TI - Quality of Life with Voice Prosthesis after Total Laryngectomy JO - Iranian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology JA - IJORL LA - en SN - 2251-7251 AU - Massaro, Nicola AU - Verro, Barbara AU - Greco, Giuseppe AU - Chianetta, Enzo AU - D'Ecclesia, Aurelio AU - Saraniti, Carmelo AD - Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostic, University of Palermo, Palermo (PA) Italy. AD - ENT and Maxillo-Facial Clinic, IRCSS – Casa Sollievo Della Sofferenza – San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia (FG), Italy. Y1 - 2021 PY - 2021 VL - 33 IS - 5 SP - 301 EP - 309 KW - Quality of life KW - Prostheses KW - Voice quality KW - Laryngectomy DO - 10.22038/ijorl.2021.53724.2832 N2 - Introduction: The loss of voice after total laryngectomy is one of the main impairments in personal and social life. In order to prevent potential psycho-social consequences in the patient and his family, the restoration of phonatory function is the main objective of post-laryngectomy rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to assess quality of life in patients who received prosthetic voice after total laryngectomy.   Materials and Methods: Over a one-year period, 51 patients with voice prostheses after total laryngectomy were recruited. 32 patients (62.74%) were administered radiation therapy and 9 patients (17.64%) underwent to surgical reconstruction with flaps. Each patient was administered the VHI-10 and V-RQOL self-assessment questionnaires.   Results: The study showed that vocal restoration with voice prosthesis allows patients to recover a significant degree of quality of life after total laryngectomy. The average score on the V-RQOL questionnaire was 75.9 and on the VHI-10 questionnaire was 13.5. It has not been shown a statistically significant correlation between quality of life after tracheoesophageal prosthesis and radiation therapy, chemotherapy or reconstruction flaps. Younger patients showed, on average, a higher score at V-RQOL. These results allow to state that, after prosthetic rehabilitation, at least 75% of patients experienced an increase in quality of life. Moreover, the prosthetic technique (primary vs secondary) does not affect the long-term outcome and radiotherapy, chemotherapy or reconstruction flaps are not absolute contraindications to rehabilitation with voice prosthesis.   Conclusion: After total laryngectomy, rehabilitation with tracheoesophageal prosthesis is a satisfactory choice to restore the patient’s ability to communicate verbally. UR - https://ijorl.mums.ac.ir/article_18632.html L1 - https://ijorl.mums.ac.ir/article_18632_caa4a1c6b45bbce117900c554b8811c5.pdf ER -