Quality of Life with Voice Prosthesis after Total Laryngectomy

Introduction: the loss of voice after total laryngectomy is one of the main impairments in personal and social life. in order to prevent potential psycho-social consequences in the patient and his family, the restoration of phonatory function is the main objective of post-laryngectomy rehabilitation. the aim of this study was to assess quality of life in patients who received prosthetic voice after total laryngectomy. materials and methods: over a one-year period, 51 patients with voice prostheses after total laryngectomy were recruited. 32 patients (62.74%) were administered radiation therapy and 9 patients (17.64%) underwent to surgical reconstruction with flaps. each patient was administered the vhi-10 and v-rqol self-assessment questionnaires. results: the study showed that vocal restoration with voice prosthesis allows patients to recover a significant degree of quality of life after total laryngectomy. the average score on the v-rqol questionnaire was 75.9 and on the vhi-10 questionnaire was 13.5. it has not been shown a statistically significant correlation between quality of life after tracheoesophageal prosthesis and radiation therapy, chemotherapy or reconstruction flaps. younger patients showed, on average, a higher score at v-rqol. these results allow to state that, after prosthetic rehabilitation, at least 75% of patients experienced an increase in quality of life. moreover, the prosthetic technique (primary vs secondary) does not affect the long-term outcome and radiotherapy, chemotherapy or reconstruction flaps are not absolute contraindications to rehabilitation with voice prosthesis. conclusion: after total laryngectomy, rehabilitation with tracheoesophageal prosthesis is a satisfactory choice to restore the patient’s ability to communicate verbally.