V Monish

Abstract

Objective: Aim of the work was to highlight the speech and swallowing difficulties that are associated with osmotic demyelination syndrome and also the importance of speech and language therapy in patients with osmotic demyelination syndrome. Materials and Method: In this case report, a 68 years old female who developed osmotic demyelination syndrome as a result of hyponatremia correction has been described. The patient developed motor, speech and swallowing difficulties after 10 day of hyponatremia correction. For assessing speech and language skills, Bedside Screening Test for Persons with Aphasia was used. Gugging Swallowing Screen was used for assessing the swallowing skills. Results: The assessment results indicated that the patient’s auditory comprehension skills were preserved and other verbal skills were affected as the patient had mutism. Also the patient had slight dysphagia with lower risk of aspiration. With speech-language intervention, improvement was observed in swallowing and verbal communication skills. Conclusion: ODS is a rare clinical condition. In order to have a better perspective about speech, language and swallowing skills in individuals with ODS, replication of such studies are essential. Keywords: Hyponatremia, mutism, dysphagia, dysarthria

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Abstract

Aim: This study is aimed to investigate the articulatory functions of patients who have undergone tongue reconstruction following hemiglossectomy. The second aim of the study is to compare the speech intelligibility between hemiglossectomy patients who have undergone tongue reconstruction using pectoralis major myocutaneous with those hemiglossectomy patients who had undergone tongue reconstruction using radial forearm free flap. Materials and Methods: Fourteen patients who have undergone tongue reconstruction following hemiglossectomy as a treatment for oral cancer between the age of 30 to 60 years were taken up for this study. Tamil Articulation Test was used for assessing the articulatory functions of patients. The speech intelligibility of each patient was assessed using the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped intelligibility rating scale. Results: Analysis of articulatory errors revealed linguoalveolar consonants were more impaired when compared to other consonants. Patients with radial forearm free flap had somewhat better speech intelligibility compared to patients with pectoralis major myocutaneous flap reconstruction. Conclusion: The type of reconstruction also impacts the speech intelligibility. Effective intervention can be planned based on the comprehensive speech evaluation and analysis of articulatory error relative to place and manner of production. Keywords: Hemiglossectomy, Tongue reconstruction, Speech intelligibility, Articulation, Pectoralis major myocutaneous flap, Radial forearm free flap

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