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Paul Kin-Yip Lam, FRCSEd; Wai-Kuen Ho, FRCSEd; Ambrose Chung-Wai Ho; Raymond Wai-Man Ng, FRCSEd; Anthony Po Wing Yuen, FRCSEd; William Ignace Wei, FRCS, MRCSEd

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2005;131:954-958.

Objectives  To assess the use of indwelling tracheoesophageal speaking valves in Chinese patients undergoing laryngectomy, to identify the clinicopathologic factors for favorable outcome, and to evaluate the factors that determine prosthesis lifetime.

Design  Retrospective review.

Setting  Tertiary care institution.

Patients  Sixty consecutive patients with total laryngectomy were included. All had indwelling tracheoesophageal speaking valves for voice restoration.

Intervention  Anterograde replacement of voice prosthesis in case of failure of functional speech production or leakage of saliva.

Main Outcome Measures  Incidence of successful tracheoesophageal speech rehabilitation for daily communication, influence of different clinicopathologic factors on the outcome, and prosthesis lifetime and its relationship to different clinicopathologic factors.

Results  The success rate of speech rehabilitation was 78%. Age younger than 60 years was the only clinicopathologic factor associated with successful speech rehabilitation (P = .04, Fisher exact test). The median device lifetime was 8.2 months. Both age of 60 years or older and the use of subsequent prosthetic valves were identified as risk factors for valve failure on univariate analysis (n = 192; log-rank test; P = .02 and P = .03, respectively), with age of 60 years or older as the only risk factor that reduced the device lifetime in the Cox proportional hazards model (P = .03; relative hazard ratio, 1.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-2.4).

Conclusions  Our success rate in using indwelling tracheoesophageal speaking valves was comparable to that reported in the Western literature. The median device lifetime of 8.2 months was satisfactory. Patient age was found to be a significant predictor of successful tracheoesophageal speech rehabilitation, with age of 60 years or more adversely affecting device lifetime.

Author Affiliations: Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Hong Kong Medical Centre, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.