[Acoustic and phoniatric investigations in esophageal speech (author's transl)].

The present study attempted to investigate the intelligibility of esophageal speech by utilizing speech audiometry. A tape recording of spoken numbers and monosyllabic words was made by laryngectomized patients who had learned esophageal speech. Normal hearing persons were then tested with this recorded speech for intelligibility. The threshold for detectibility of the spoken numbers in the study was found to be comparable for that of normal speech. However, the intelligibility curves of monosyllabic words was poorer when esophageal speech was employed. No improvement in correctness of response in testees could be accomplished over a 65db intensity range. It is felt that this finding is based on the sound volume range of esophageal speech as modified by unfavorable signal/noise relationships.