The Effect of Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy on Nasality

Nam, Soon Yuhl; Suh, Seock Bum; Chang, Young

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The changes in voice that occur after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy are mainly the nasal sound which can be measured with nasometer. This study was designed to estimate the postoperative changes in the voice, especially the nasal sound.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The subjects of this study included 26 patients who had received tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Thirty normal children were also selected as the control group. The nasalance and the each formants of /a/, /i/ of preoperative state were compared with those of postoperative 4 and 8 weeks.
RESULTS
The preoperative nasality of the tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy group was significantly lower than that of the control group. Comparing the preoperative and postoperative 1 month state, there was significant increase in the nasalance, whereas it was recovered in the postoperative 2 months to the same level of the preoperatve state. The changes of the formants were not significantly noticed.
CONCLUSION
Although the temporary increase in the nasalance does occur immediately after adenoidectomy, the postoperative 2 months state show no significant changes compared to the preoperative state. Therefore, the voice changes that come postoperatively could be considered as no concern for the non-professional voice user.