Efficacy of Head Turn Technique in Treatment of Unilateral Vocal Cord Paralysis: An attempt at evidence based practice

Abstract

The present was designated to assess the efficacy of head turn technique in treatment of unilateral vocal cord paralysis. Three patients, 2 males and 1 female ranging in age from 30 to 51 served as participants. Acoustic and aerodynamic measures were obtained four times, that is, before, after 4th, 8th and 12th therapy session. The head turn to initiate therapy was determined in random order to see the effect of head turn on the measures. Acoustic data was obtained by having the client phonate vowel la/ in three head positions, right, center and left. Both right and left side made 7if angle with the central marking. Aerodynamic measures and mean air flow rate was obtained in three head positions. The results indicated that head turn therapy procedure was useful in attaining glottal valving and also to elicit stable voice production.. However the magnitude of improvement was not the same across participants. Also, the therapy procedure resulted in generalized improvement in all the head positions irrespective of head turn of therapy practice.