Birkent Hakan, Soken Hakan, Akcam Timur, Karahatay Serdar, Gerek Mustafa
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Gulhane Military Medical School, Etlik-Ankara, Turkey.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2008 Feb;265(2):195-8. doi: 10.1007/s00405-007-0445-3. Epub 2007 Sep 26.
The surgical techniques used for snoring and OSA treatment include partial/complete resection or tissue reduction of the oropharyngeal structures such as uvula, tonsilla palatinas, soft palate, lateral pharyngeal tissues and tongue base. So it is predictable for these techniques to affect the resonating volume of the vocal tract and therefore the speech sounds. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether radiofrequency volumetric tissue reduction (RFVTR) of the soft palate can cause voice changes by altering the formant frequencies and fundamental frequency of vowels. A prospective study of 26 habitual snorers and mild obstructive sleep apnea patients (apnea-hypopnea index, <10 in all cases) were investigated before and 6 weeks after RFVTR. The patients received one Somnoplasty RFVTR treatment of 1,400 J per treatment session: 700 J into the midline and 350 J on each side of the soft palate with a maximum temperature of 80 degrees C. Acoustic evaluation was made by the Multidimensional Voice Program. The mean fundamental frequency (MF0) and the first three formant frequencies (F1, F2, F3) of four sustained vowels /a/, /e/, /i/ and /o/ were determined. Comparison between preoperative and postoperative acoustic analysis of the MF0 and F1, F2, F3 of sustained vowels revealed no significant change. The findings of the study indicate that RFVTR of the soft palate as a treatment for snoring and mild forms of OSA does not have a significant impact on the mean fundamental frequency and formant frequencies of vowels. These results seem to be important in management of patients with concerns about postoperative vocal quality, such as singers and professional speakers.
用于治疗打鼾和阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停（OSA）的外科技术包括对口咽结构进行部分/完全切除或组织缩减，如悬雍垂、腭扁桃体、软腭、咽侧壁组织和舌根。因此，这些技术会影响声道的共鸣容积，进而影响语音，这是可以预见的。本研究的目的是评估软腭的射频容积性组织缩减（RFVTR）是否会通过改变元音的共振峰频率和基频而导致声音变化。对26名习惯性打鼾者和轻度阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停患者（所有病例的呼吸暂停低通气指数均<10）进行了前瞻性研究，在RFVTR治疗前和治疗后6周进行了调查。患者接受了每次治疗1400焦耳的Somnoplasty RFVTR治疗：700焦耳作用于软腭中线，两侧各350焦耳，最高温度为80摄氏度。通过多维度嗓音程序进行声学评估。测定了四个持续元音/a/、/e/、/i/和/o/的平均基频（MF0）和前三个共振峰频率（F1、F2、F3）。对持续元音的MF0以及F1、F2、F3术前和术后声学分析的比较显示无显著变化。该研究结果表明，软腭的RFVTR作为治疗打鼾和轻度OSA的方法，对元音的平均基频和共振峰频率没有显著影响。这些结果对于那些担心术后嗓音质量的患者（如歌手和职业演讲者）的管理似乎很重要。
