Ventilatory function in laryngectomized patients.

It is established that maximum expiratory flow-volume curve coupled with closing volume curve may give important information on obstructive impairment in the laryngectomized patients. In the patients after laryngectomy, the pattern of the flow-volume curve was similar to that found in patients with chronic bronchitis. These abnormalities of the flow-volume curve which became convexity to the volume axis can be reversed at least partially by bronchodilator drug inhalation. It is concluded that the patients after laryngectomy have abnormalities of ventilation distribution despite relatively normal results of routine pulmonary function tests and respiratory resistance.