Korean J Endocr Surg.  2001 Oct;1(2):237-243. 10.16956/kjes.2001.1.2.237.

The Effect on Voice by Strap Muscle Cutting in Thyroidectomy

• Koh JW
• Soh EY
• Yang HD
• Chun JM
• Kim Y
• Lee S

• KMID: 2376200
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.16956/kjes.2001.1.2.237

Abstract

PURPOSE
Voice change after thyroidectomy has generally been the result of damage to the recurrent or superior laryngeal nerve. But many patients complain voice alteration without laryngeal nerve injury after thyroidectomy. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether strap muscle division results in any subjective or objective functional sequelae in voice, through long-term follow-up prospectively.
METHODS
Twenty-two female patients who had undergone thyroid surgery between July 1998 and December 1999, were studied. The patients who were planned for neck dissection, who had benign laryngeal disease or vocal cord paresis, and whose vocal cord paresis were developed after thyroid surgery, were excluded from this study. Twelve patients had undergone thyroidectomy via retraction of strap muscle and ten patients had undergone thyroidectomy via cutting of strap muscle. For evaluation of voice, questionnaires for changes of voice, acoustics (fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, signal to noise ratio, noise to harmonic ratio, voice range), and aerodynamic (maximal phonation time) analyses were done.
RESULTS
The subjective voice symptoms after thyroidectomy were disturbances of high pitch, singing, loud voice, and easy fatigue at phonation. There were no significant differences in voice parameters on acoustic and aerodynamic analyses between the strap muscle retraction group and the cutting group through long-term follow-up.
CONCLUSION
We conclude that strap muscle division does not result in any subjective or objective functional problems in voice. We suggest that surgical division and reconstruction of these muscles should be employed routinely when operating on large, toxic or neoplastic glands.

Keyword

Thyroidectomy; Strap muscles; Voice parameters

MeSH Terms

Acoustics
Fatigue
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Laryngeal Diseases
Laryngeal Nerve Injuries
Laryngeal Nerves
Muscles
Neck Dissection
Noise
Phonation
Prospective Studies
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
Singing
Thyroid Gland
Thyroidectomy*
Vocal Cord Paralysis
Voice*