A questionnaire using vocal symptoms in quality control of phonosurgery: vocal surgical questionnaire

BACKGROUND: Quality control after phonosurgery is important and may be time consuming. Often questionnaires focusing on quality of life are applied. We aimed at investigating the use of organ specific symptoms, such as hoarseness and voice failure with the use of self-reported visual analogue scales (VAS) and Likert-scales. METHODS: A vocal surgical questionnaire using VAS and Likert-scales for hoarseness, voice failure and factors that could influence voice quality was given twice consecutively to a group of healthy volunteers (n = 57, 45 female) and a group of voice patients (n = 34, 21 females) for a test/re-test study. Secondly, a group of patients undergoing surgery (n = 90, 61females) answered the questionnaire preoperatively and postoperatively. The difference between test/retest, healthy volunteers and patients, and between pre- and postoperative results were compared. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the test/retest results in healthy volunteers nor in the patient group. There was statistically significant difference between the healthy volunteers and patients, and between the preoperative and postoperative results after phonosurgery. CONCLUSION: This short and organ specific questionnaire clearly demonstrates the effect of phonosurgery, making it an easy and relevant tool in quality control and potentially reducing the need of postoperative controls in the outpatient clinic.