Validation of a voice outcome survey for unilateral vocal cord paralysis.

Current methods to assess voice outcomes in patients with unilateral vocal cord paralysis (UVCP) are limited by expense, reliability, or lack of a true patient-relevant focus. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a patient-based, disease-specific instrument, the Voice Outcome Survey (VOS), that is brief, reliable, and sensitive to real clinical change in patients with UVCP. Fifty-six consecutive patients with uncompensated UVCP and without complicating comorbid illness received the VOS, the Medical Outcome Study Short Form 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36), and a voice laboratory analysis before and 6 months after type I thyroplasty. Overall, reliability of the VOS was excellent (r = 0.87, P < 0.0001). The VOS index was significantly (P < 0.05) correlated to subscales of the SF-36 including social functioning (SF) (r = 0.56) and physical role functioning (r = 0.35), as well as changes in objective voice measures such as phonation time (r = 0.51) and average intensity (r = 0.44). The VOS index was the most sensitive measure to clinical change after surgery (standardized response means: VOS, 1.92; phonation time, 0.68; SF, 0.58; physical role functioning, 0.53; intensity, 0.51). The VOS is a brief, valid, reliable, and highly sensitive measure of disease-specific health status in patients with UVCP.