Immediate Effects of Combining Kinesio Tape with Voice Therapy in Patients with Muscle Tension Dysphonia

Abstract

The present study investigated the immediate effect of adding Kinesio taping along with voice therapy for the treatment of muscle tension dysphonia patients. Twenty patients with primary muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) (12 males and 8 females) with a mean age of 36.95 ± 9.58 years participated in the study. Participants were assigned to two groups: one group (6 males and 4 females) received only traditional voice therapy (VT) and the other group (6 males and 4 females) received Kinesio taping (KT) and voice therapy (VT). The VT group received laryngeal manual therapy (LMT) (for 15 minutes) and voice therapy techniques including humming, chewing, and yawn-sigh (for 15 minutes). The VT+KT group received both KT and the same VT as the first group. KT was applied to the sternocleidomastoid, infralaryngeal, and supralaryngeal muscles of the neck. Auditory-perceptual assessments using CAPE-V, acoustic voice analysis, and assessments of vocal tract discomfort and pain were used to evaluate the effects of a single treatment session. The Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for data analysis. The results of within-group comparison of the auditory-perceptual assessment (overall severity, roughness, breathiness, and strain) in both sustained vowels and connected speech tasks showed a significant reduction in all mentioned items in both groups (P < 0.05). Acoustic voice analysis showed significant improvement of HNR in the KT+VT group for both sustained vowels and connected speech tasks, and significant improvement of jitter in the VT group for sustained vowels (P < 0.05). Regarding vocal tract discomfort, the symptom of tightness in the KT+VT group, irritability and pain in the VT group, and the overall score of vocal tract discomfort in both groups, significantly decreased (P < 0.05). A significant decrease in pain severity in the front of the neck, throat, and larynx was reported by MTD patients in both groups (P < 0.05). Between-group comparisons indicated a significant difference only in the pain item of the VTD scale (P < 0.05) with greater pain decrease for the VT group. Comparison of the mean of differences showed that the VT group reduced irritability more than the KT+VT group (P < 0.05). The present study showed that voice therapy with and without Kinesio taping can improve patients' voice quality (auditory-perceptual and acoustic voice analysis) and reduce vocal tract discomfort and pain in MTD patients after one therapy session. Moreover, MTD patients treated with KT+VT did not experience more significant improvements compared to those treated with VT alone. More studies in this area are recommended to better determine the effects of KT in MTD patients especially for long term effects of KT.