Characteristics of speech production in a post-glossectomy speaker with a free flap: A case study

Abstract

It is unclear in glossectomy whether a flap will improve or impair speech, at least in the moderate sized (T2) tongue tumors. To gain some insights into this question, we studied the speech production of a post-glossectomy speaker, who had a T2 tumor surgically removed from the left side of his tongue and, closed with a radial forearm free flap (RFFF). Our acoustic analysis showed that this speaker had a significantly smaller vowel space and a significantly higher center of gravity in “sh”, but not in “s”, compared with the averages of normal controls or post-glossectomy speakers with primary closures. Based on cine and tagged magnetic resonance (MR) images, we analyzed the vocal tract shapes of two vowels and two fricatives and studied the tongue motion in transition of phonemes on this speaker and two controls. We will compare the vocal tract models between the flap patient and the controls. [This study was supported by NIH R01CA133015.]