Impact of tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy on the acoustic parameters of the voice: a comparative study.

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of chronic tonsillitis with or without adenoiditis and the effects of tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy on the voice by means of acoustic analysis. DESIGN Prospective case-control study. SETTING Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital. PATIENTS Patients 5 to 26 years old with chronic tonsillitis with or without adenoiditis. INTERVENTIONS Tonsillectomies were performed under general anesthesia by surgeons using cold steel instruments via a standard capsular dissection technique, and adenoids were removed by curettage. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Acoustic analysis of 6 parameters (fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, harmonics: noise ratio, long-term average spectrum, and nasalance) 4 weeks after surgery compared with 1 day before surgery. RESULTS Postoperatively, shimmer altered in males, and hypernasality was eliminated in almost all cases. None of the other associations were significant statistically. CONCLUSIONS Chronic tonsillitis and tonsillar hypertrophy cause alterations in some acoustic measurements, which make the voice dysharmonic and harsh. Tonsillectomy eliminates nasalance and lowers shimmer. Overall, it does not significantly alter dysphonia owing to disease.