MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Department of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) from June 2015 to May 2016. The mVHI-10 was produced following a rigorous forward and backward translation. One hundred participants, including 50 healthy volunteers (17 male, 33 female) and 50 patients with voice disorders (26 male, 24 female), were recruited to complete the mVHI-10 before flexible laryngoscopic examinations and acoustic analysis. The mVHI-10 was repeated in 2 weeks via telephone interview or clinic visit. Its reliability and validity were assessed using interclass correlation.
RESULTS: The test-retest reliability for total mVHI-10 and each item score was high, with the Cronbach alpha of >0.90. The total mVHI-10 score and domain scores were significantly higher (P
PARTICIPANTS: The study included 16 patients with UVFP who underwent either LR (9 patients) or thyroplasty (7 patients) between 2015 and 2018 who fulfilled the inclusion criteria.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcomes were measured subjectively and objectively with: (1) voice handicap index-10 (VHI-10- Malay version); (2) auditory perceptual evaluation using the breathiness component of Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain scale; (3) maximum phonation time (MPT); and (4) acoustic analysis (jitter%, shimmer%, and NHR) using OperaVOXTM. The outcomes were measured at baseline, 6 and 12-months postoperative. The comparison of outcomes between pre and postoperative of each group was evaluated using one-way ANOVA test. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the outcomes between the two groups.
RESULTS: Comparison of each group at different time points showed significant improvement of VHI-10 and MPT of LR group between baseline and 12 months (P ≤ 0.05) whereas, the improvement in thyroplasty group was observed at all time points (P ≤ 0.05). When comparing between the two groups at 12 months, the VHI-10 and MPT was significantly better in the LR group than thyroplasty group with P = 0.004 and P = 0.001 respectively. Other outcome measures did not reveal significant difference between the two groups.
CONCLUSION: This observational study showed that LR may be better than thyroplasty in improving VHI-10 and MPT in selected patients with UVFP.