Vocal Rehabilitation of Paralytic Dysphonia: II. Acoustic Analysis of Vocal Function

Abstract

<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> Persons with a hoarse voice are frequently referred to as having a "voice problem." While this is true in the broadest sense, it is obviously not enough to describe any particular vocal disability. It means about as much as if an eye specialist were to say that he is treating patients with "seeing problems," or if an audiologist were to write about the "hearing problems" seen in his hearing clinic without giving any of the elaborate and detailed findings commonly encountered in audiologic publications. The great progress of medical science in this century is partly due to the rapidly advancing methods of analysis and description of physiologic functions. The same is true with regard to vocal function, and the medical specialty of voice therapy or phoniatrics has successfully kept pace during the first century of its existence with the progress of other medical sciences. Incidentally, the name of the