Introduction:The laryngeal cancer treatment causes significant changes in the quality of life. Purpose: To assess and compare the vocal handicap and the coping strategies to deal with the vocal handicap resulting from supracricoid and total laryngectomy. Methods: Analytical, prospective observational study of groups of subjects with the same disease. Seventeen subjects were assessed and divided in two groups; the first with eight male subjects submitted to supracricoid partial laryngectomy, with cricohyoidoepiglottopexy, mean age of 67,5; and a second group with nine subjects, two women and seven men, submitted to total laryngectomy, mean age of 64,3. All subjects answered the Vocal Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) and the Coping Strategies in Dysphonia Protocol (PEED-27). Results: The mean values of raw scores obtained with the VHI-10 by the two groups did not reveal significant differences, matching studies involving dysphonic patients. Both groups use an elevated number of coping strategies for vocal problems: the first group presented mean raw scores of 65,75 and the second group, 59,22.
Conclusion:The comparison between subjects submitted to supracricoid laryngectomy and total laryngectomy does not evidence differences concerning the self-assessment of voice, vocal handicap and coping strategies to deal with vocal problems. Both groups use more than the double of coping strategies for vocal problems, with a predominant focus on emotion.