Abstract:

Objective

To explore the effect of the tip tongue consonants and vowels in the hemi-tongue defect patients after reconstruction with forearm flap （FAF）.

Methods

20 patients who underwent hemiglossectomy were reconstructed with FAP flaps. After 6 months， the patients' consonants and vowels were evaluated by articulation test. VS-9700 was used to analyze the speech character of vowels before and after operation.

Results

（1）The speech articulation of /sh/、/zh/ in all tip tongue consonants were bad in patients who underwent hemi-tongue reconstruction with FAF. The vowels were good. （2）Only the first formant （F₁） of /i/ of the FAF group was lower than that of the control group （P ＜ 0.05）， but there was no significant differences between FAF group and control group in F₂ of /i/ （P ＞0.05）.

Conclusion

Articulator function can be well achieved by forearm flaps reconstruction in hemi-tongue defect patients.

Key words: Tongue neoplasm, Surgical flaps, Articulator function