Voice-related quality of life after total laryngectomy: systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: To compare voice rehabilitation-related quality of life among patients surgically treated for total laryngectomy and rehabilitated with esophageal (EV) and tracheoesophageal (TEV) voice. Methods: A systematic literature review of articles from the past 20 years was conducted, and only full-text English articles comparing VTE and EV results in laryngectomized patients were included. Results: We provided 15 articles for a total of 1085 laryngectomized patients undergoing voice rehabilitation, of which 869 (80.1%) were treated with voice prosthesis while 216 (19.9%) to esophageal speech. Pooled VHI outcomes showed a significantly better score for the TEV group than EV one (31.93±12.11 versus 35.39±20.6; P = 0.003), but no significant difference was recorded at VrQoL (8.27±5.98 versus 9.27±2.02; P = 0.19). Conclusion: TEV and EV are both effective procedures in voice rehabilitation after laryngectomy. Although TEV allows for significantly better speech performance, it does not necessarily correlate with a high VrQoL.