Introduction:
Total laryngectomy (TL) is one of the most common procedures in head and
neck surgery. The post-TL voice rehabilitation is challenging for both
patients and practitioners due to the complex nature of patient
presentation and the involvement of many motivational and oncological
factors [1,2]. To date, tracheoesophageal speech is considered as
the gold standard for post-TL voice rehabilitation [1,2]. The mean
duration of voice prosthesis (VP) life-time ranged from 3 to 6-month,
which supports the need of adequate follow-up and VP changes [3]. In
most countries, the VP changes are performed by physicians because it is
considered as a medical act.
In the present study, we assessed the feasibility and success outcomes
of VP changes when performed by speech-language pathologist SLP.
Material and methods :