Abstract
Amatsu tracheoesophageal shunt （ATES） is one of the primary means of restoring voice after total laryngectomy. ATES can maintain tracheoesophageal speech without a voice prosthesis. A total of 23 patients who underwent ATES operation with total laryngectomy at Hyogo Cancer Center from January 2001 to December 2014 were included, and the rate of voice restoration, speech intelligibility and aspiration were retrospectively analyzed. Speech intelligibility was assessed using the five grades of Taguchi’s criteria, and the aspiration was assessed using the following three groups: （1） none; （2） mild; （3） severe. Of the 23 patients, 18 （78％） succeeded in achieving postoperative tracheoesophageal speech. Of the 18 patients, 13, 1, 2 and 2 patients had Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 and Grade 4 speech intelligibility, respectively. Regarding aspiration, 8 and 2 patients had mild and severe aspiration, respectively. ATES achieved favorable speech intelligibility and low aspiration rate in this study.
