Design of an intraoral artificial larynx system for the speech rehabilitation of total laryngectomees

Abstract

The cancer of larynx is treated with a surgical method called total laryngectomy whether it is diagnosed in the later stage of the disease. In this procedure, the larynx and the vocal cords are removed. Consequently, these patients are loosing their voice and their ability of speech production. The aim of this study is to establish an intraoral artificial larynx system that will produce vibrations at the fundamental frequency of the vocal cords and which will be worn easily as a dental prosthesis to provide a speech rehabilitation method to the laryngectomees. The circuit of this system is first setup on a breadboard. A prototype of that system is manufactured using micro-components and mounted in a dental prosthesis. To establish clinical studies and to compare with electrolarynx, two other prototypes individual to each patient are manufactured and applied to two total laryngectomees. These patients are trained to perform exaggerated articulation while using the intraoral artificial larynx system. Audio records are taken while the patients are reading text materials using both electrolarynx and the system. These records are listened by twelve testers which, are requested to write what they understood on a form prepared for this purpose. According to the results gathered from the testing process, the average success percentages are calculated for both system to compare both of them. This study shows that even though the performance of that system is lower than that of electrolarynx, it may be used as a speech rehabilitation method provided that some technical improvements are accomplished.