SHBC1532

J.ONG¹, H.S.CHEW¹, A.SANCHALIKA¹

Tan Tock Seng Hospital¹

With the advancement in medical technologies such as telemedicine, and a growing interest in outpatient office-based procedures, knowledge of our patient profile will allow us to determine the feasibility of providing these services.

TTSH voice clinic records between 2013 and 2018 were reviewed. Patients’ demographic, clinical and treatment data were collected. The factors associated with speech therapy attendance and surgical intervention were determined using logistic regression analysis. A p-value of <0.05 was taken as significant.

51.2% of the 793 patients were female and 13.1% were professional voice users. Top 3 procedures performed were ELMS (n=77), injection thyroplasty (n=19), open thyroplasty (n=6). Patients with vocal cord palsy (OR 7.25) or cysts and polyps (OR 30.07) were more likely to undergo surgery. 142 out of 230 suitable patients attended speech therapy sessions. Professional voice users (OR 2.05) and males (OR 2.27) were more likely to attend speech therapy.

Our patients mostly require speech therapy or follow up. Surgical treatment rate was 13.9%, highest in patients who had polyps and cysts (57.4%). The current uptake rate of injection thyroplasty is at 18.1%, but we feel that more patients could benefit from this simple and immediately beneficial outpatient procedure. Our patients will also benefit from easier access to speech therapy via telemedicine. This study was limited by the lack of data on subjective vocal indices which are important outcome measures in a voice clinic setting.