Effects of Tonsillectomy on Changing in Acoustic Voice Quality

A prospectiv non randomized study evaluated the effects of tonsillectomy on acoustic aspects of vocal function. Twenty children, ranging in age from six to fourteen years participated and measurements were made prior three and thirty days following surgery. Quantitative acoustic measures included: laryngeal (vocal fundamental frequency, F0), and oropharyngeal characteristics of sustained vowels (F1 to F4 formants). Results show that in early postoperativ period there are significant changes in fundamental, laryngeal frequencies for all vowels and whole sentence. Results that we have from later postoperativ period demonstrate that removing of tonsills has only minimal impact on quantitive aspects of vocal function, when measurements are made 30 days post surgery. From the acoustic evaluation, the changes in articulation due to surgery were considered to be negligible in clinical practice, although in proffesional vocalists it see med to be a problem that cannot be disregarded.