軟口蓋半側切除患者における音声学的研究

概要

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In patients undergoing unilateral excision of the soft palate due to squamous cell carcinoma of the soft palate, a prosthesis was implanted, and the patients were studied phonetically for 18 months after operation. The following results were obtained.<BR>1. The vowels, “a”, “e”, “i”, and “o” were pronounced perfectly by patients using the prosthesis, but the inteligibility of “u” was lowered, which tended to be mis-heard as “0” This is felt to arise because the resonance chamber was deformed by the mounting of the prosthesis. However it was possible to compensate for this by using the tongue.<BR>2. Among the consonants, almost all sounds except for plosives and nasals, were improved by the prosthesis. Trouble with plosives was caused by imperfect elevation of the internal pressure of the oral cavity, and its improvement was inadequate even 18 months after operation. This seems to be a limitation of prosthetic therapy at the present.