No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

SUMMARY Voice disorders are among the most common complications of thyroid surgery. It is therefore advisable to continuously monitor and report the outcomes of voice rehabilitation among people who underwent thyroid surgery in order to recognize which specific clinical actions are necessary to give those patients the maximum chance to restore quality of life. The aim of this study was to examine the outcomes of voice therapy in 35 persons (26 women and 9 men) aged between 20 and 75 years after total thyroidectomy or lobectomy. Multidimensional voice assessment using the GRBAS scale, Voice Handicap Index questionnaire, and acoustic analysis was carried out before and after voice therapy, which included relaxation and breathing exercises, laryngeal massage, resonance therapy, and the employment of the digital compression method. Since the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test showed significant improvements in all voice parameters after voice therapy, voice rehabilitation seems to be the essential clinical activity for thyroid surgery patients who suffer from voice disorders postoperatively.

There is no arguing about the importance of voice, especially in groups of vocal professional voices. The question is what characterizes, the most, normal or pathological voice in relation to aspects of human working life. Harmonics to noise ratio, according to findings from the field of voice disorders, is the most representative method to differ normal from pathological voice. In this research significant differences were found in harmonics to noise ratio in relation to the length of the working age of 29 teachers of primary schools in Zagreb. Teachers with the longest working age (40-yr.) showed the most distorted voices. The best quality of voice with great ratio of harmonics to noise was found in the group of teachers with 10 years of professional work. Acoustical analyses were made by ezvoiceplusTM version 2.0 and Gram. 2.3. Significant statistical differences were established by the T test of Statistica for Windows, version 4.5. [Work supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of Republic of Croatia.]