Articulation Changes after Partial Glossectomy in Patients with Early Tongue Cancer

Lee, Gil-Joon; Youm, Hye-Youn; Lee, Gang-Gyu; Lee, Eun-Kyoung; Son, Young-Ik

J Korean Soc Laryngol Phoniatr Logop > Volume 21(1); 2010 > Article

Journal of The Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics 2010;21(1): 42-47.

초기 구강설암 환자에서 부분 설절제술 후 조음변화

이길준, 염혜연, 이강규, 이은경, 손영익

성균관대학 의과대학 삼성서울병원 이비인후과학교실

Articulation Changes after Partial Glossectomy in Patients with Early Tongue Cancer

Gil-Joon Lee, Hye-Youn Youm, Gang-Gyu Lee, Eun-Kyoung Lee, Young-Ik Son

Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center

ABSTRACT

Backgrounds and Objects: Carcinoma of the tongue is the most common cancer of the oral cavity. A primary treatment strategy includes surgery and/or radiotherapy. Resection of the tongue often results in speech dysfunction, which depends on the site and extent of resection, type of reconstruction, and the mobility of remaining tongue. This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of articulation errors that were resulted from the partial glossectomy without free flap reconstruction. Materials & Method : Articulation evaluations including speech intelligibility and percent of correct consonants (PCC) were performed for 24 patients who underwent partial glossectomy for their T1 or T2 tongue cancer. Mobility of the tongue, size of the resected tongue, and the history of adjuvant radiotherapy were analyzed for their relationship with the results of articulation evaluation.
Results:
Speech intelligibility score was $6.4{pm}0.9$ (on 7-point scale) and overall PCC was 96.9%. There were close relationships between the size of resection and limitations in the tongue mobility, especially in "protrusion and elevation (r=-0.687)" and "retroflexion (r=-0.775)". Errors in "alveolar fricatives" and "palatal affricates" were also closely related with the size of resection (r=-0.537 and -0.538, respectively). PCC for "liquid sound" /r/ was 83.2%, which was closely related with the history of radiation therapy.
Conclusion
: Overall articulatory function was satisfactory in cases of early tongue cancer after partial glossectomy of a limited volume without flap reconstruction. However, the size of resection and the history of radiation therapy were closely related to the limitations in some types of tongue mobility and the resultant articulation errors.

KEY WORDS： Glossectomy;Speech intelligibility;Radiotherapy;Mobility limitation;Articulation disorders;

중심 단어： 설절제술;방사선치료;음명료도;조음장애;운동성 제한;