Characteristics of Esophageal Voice /a/ and /i/ in Totally Laryngectomized Patients

Ahn, Cheol Min; Kim, Hyang Cho; Choi, Ji Ho; Chung, Duk Hee

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The esophageal voice can be a choice for alaryngeal patients. However, many patients fail to get a esophageal voice, because there are no known systematic principles nor specific training methods of producing the esophageal voice. We evaluated the difference between two vowels of the esophageal voice that have different shapes and movements of the speech apparatus. We also tried to find a relationship between the speech apparatus and the esophageal voice.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Alaryngeal patients were investigated with acoustic analysis, aerodynamic analysis and pharyngoesophagogram. We used the vowel /a/ in which the mouth is widely open and the tongue is posteriorly positioned and vowel /i/ in which the mouth is less widely open and the tongue is anteriorly positioned. We compared the results of analytic studies between two vowels.
RESULTS
The esophageal voice has a higher pitch and a lower sound in the /i/ vowel. The hypopharyngeal space above the neoglottis was extended more anteriorly. The /i/ vowel made a more tight contact with the neoglottis to the anterior wall and the short length of the neoglottis.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of acoustic analysis and pharyngoesophagogram showed that there were differences between the /a/ vowel and the /i/ vowel of the esophageal voice.