Speech and swallowing rehabilitation following head and neck cancer: Are we hearing the patient's voice? Our experience with ten patients

摘要

Swallowing and speech difficulties after treatment for advanced oral and oropharyngeal tumours are highly prevalent and often require a protracted period of rehabilitation.1 Changes in function continue to occur beyond 12 months post-treatment.2 The disruption of normal anatomy caused by surgical excision and/or fibrotic changes following chemoradiotherapy may result in some patients never regaining the ability to satisfactorily eat and drink by mouth despite therapy intervention. It is our experience that a proportion of patients may perceive their speech as unsatisfactory to continue with certain jobs which demand articulatory precision and voice projection. It is ultimately only patients themselves who determine the impact of their functional deficits and how satisfied they are with their rehabilitation.