Assessment of Effects of Septoplasty on Acoustic Parameters of Voice: A Prospective Clinical Study

Objective:To investigate the effects of septoplasty on the acoustic parameters of voice.Methods:In total, 23 patients (seven females and 16 males; average age, 32.13±9.67 years; age range: 19-56 years) with a diagnosis of nasal septal deviation and who underwent septoplasty were included. Preoperative and on postoperative 30th day, acoustic analysis of voice was conducted for all patients. The recordings of /mana/ vowel were used to evaluate average fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer, and noise-to-harmony ratio (NHR). F0, shimmer percent, jitter percent, and NHR of two terms were compared. A p-value<0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance.Results:A statistically significant change was not observed in F0 (p=0.741), jitter (p=0.930), and shimmer (p=0.128) measured preoperatively and on postoperative day 30. However, the increase in NHR measured on postoperative day 30 were statistically significant compared with preoperative NHR (p=0.017).Conclusion:According to the findings of this study, except NHR value, no statistically significant changes on F0, jitter and shimmer were detected after septoplasty

Learning curve of septoplasty procedure

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate possible relationship between surgical experience and septoplasty-related data and to determine the learning curve based on surgery duration. Patients and Methods: The first 60 septoplasty patients of four Ear, Nose and Throat residents who completed an 18-month residency training in our clinic between August 2015 and December 2017 were included in the study. A total of 240 patients (155 males, 85 females; mean age 32.8±10.6 years; range, 17 to 60 years) were evaluated. The first 10 patients were grouped as Group A, 11-20 patients as Group B, 21-30 patients as Group C, 31-40 patients as Group D, 41-50 patients as Group E, and 51-60 patients as Group F. The patients’ files were retrospectively reviewed to obtain information on demographics, postoperative hospital stay, complications, revision operation requirements, and operation time. The mean operation time was calculated. Duration of surgery was used to evaluate the maturity of surgical skills. Results: The mean operation time was 60.0±17.3 min. The mean operation times of the patients in Group A and Group B were significantly longer than that of the patients in Group C, Group D, Group E, and Group F. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of length of hospital stay, complications, and revision rates. Conclusion: As the surgeon's experience increases, the operation time decreases, and after 20 patients, it reaches the plateau level. Based on these data, it can be concluded that ENT residents should practice more than 20 patients to learn the septoplasty procedure sufficiently