SPEECH STATUS FOLLOWING UVULOPALATOPHARYNGOPLASTY

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of speech following uvulopalatopharyngoplasty surgery. Twenty UPPP subjects, all of whom exhibited obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, and 15 non-UPPP control subjects participated in the study. Evaluation included measures of nasal airflow, speech recordings with listener judgments, and a questionnaire survey. Nasal resonance in the UPPP subjects was found not to be deviant by a panel of four experienced judges. The UPPP subjects were differentiated from their non-UPPP pairs on the basis of significant phonation (voice) problems, and to a lesser extent, their articulation problems. It is suggested that dryness problems that remained in many subjects postoperatively may be related to the observed voice problems.