Spectrum analysis of Chinese vowels formant in patients with tongue carcinoma underwent hemiglossectomy

Objectives: Tongue is the most important phonatory organ in stomatognathic system. Radical resection of tongue squamous cell carcinoma can cause tongue defect and result in serious oral dysfunction, especially in phonetic function. This study aims to reveal the influence of tongue cancer, tongue defect and tongue reconstructions to phonetic function of tongue cancer patients.

Study design: Formant spectrum analysis of Chinese vowels was performed by linear predictive coding (LPC) in tongue squamous cell carcinoma patients (before surgery and 3 months, 9 months and 2 years after surgery) and normal people. Patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma were divided into reconstruction group and non-reconstruction group. In reconstruction group, patients underwent tongue reconstruction with radial forearm free flap (RFFF) and lateral arm free flap (LAFF), respectively.

Results: 45 patients and 40 normal people were included. Differences were statistically significant between patients and normal persons, between patients before surgery and after surgery, between non-reconstruction group and construction group 2 years after operation. No statistical significance was found between patients underwent tongue reconstruction with RFFF or LAFF 2 years after operation.

Conclusions: This study showed that tongue cancer and tongue defect after radical resections affected phonetic function of patients. Tongue reconstruction with free flaps could restore phonetic function to some extent. The efficiency of tongue reconstruction with RFFF and LAFF respectively were similar.