Subjective and Objective Evaluation of Voice Quality Following Endoscopic Posterior Cordotomy

Purpose: In present study, we investigated voice quality of the patients with bilateral vocal cordparalysis who had endoscopic posterior cordotomy operation between January 1997 and March2006 years in Ear-Nose-Throat Department of ukurova University Medical Faculty. Methods: We performed bilateral cordotomy only in two patients, while the other 38 patientsunderwent unilateral cordotomy. In postoperative period, the changes of voice were investigatedsubjectively in all patients and objectively in 26 of them. We examined change of voice qualityby maximum fonation time (MFT), S/Z letters time ratio, perturbation of frequency (jitter) andperturbation of amplitude (shimmer). Results: We found statistically significant deteriorations in postoperative period compared withpreoperative period in the view point of MFT (p<0.001), S/Z ratio (p<0.001), jitter (p=0.001)and shimmer (p=0.019). Conclusion: There was statistically significant decrease in voice quality but this decrease didnot affect the daily life of the patients.