Brazilian choirs of total laryngectomized individuals

Dear Chief Editors of CoDAS Journal,

The Voice Department (2017-2019 management), through the Speech-Language Pathologist for Cancer Patients Committee together with Speech-Language Pathologist Dr. Vaneli Colombo Rossi, professor of the Extension Course in Speech Pathologist Rehabilitation after Head and Neck Surgery - EXTECAMP (UNICAMP), carried out a survey in the second semester of 2018 about the choir of people with total laryngectomy active in Brazil until the given moment. A form prepared on the Google Forms^® platform was sent by email to the Speech-Language Pathologist sectors of rehabilitation centers and hospitals that work with patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). The form asked about the existence of a choir of patients with a total laryngectomy, name of the choir, year of the formation of the group, responsible speech-language pathologist, and data from the regional location. Thus, we would like to share this social work coordinated by our professional colleagues in different Brazilian states with the entire scientific society and the Speech-Language Pathologist clinic.

Past and current research recognizes the long-term psychosocial impact faced by a patient after a total laryngectomy^(1,2). Psychological comorbidities such as depression and anxiety occur in 22% to 30% of these individuals^(3,4) and about 40% report social isolation⁵. The initiative to gather patients with total laryngectomy in a choir group emerges as a complementary therapeutic proposal developed from the perspective of psychosocial care and must be linked to the improvement of the quality of life, the creation and strengthening of personal desires, affections, pleasures, and bonds. In addition, Brazilian research that performed a singing training program for patients with total laryngectomy and with a tracheoesophageal prosthesis showed improvement in the general level of dysphonia, roughness, and breathing or stability of the same parameters in the prolonged emission of vowels and an increased vocal extension in these individuals ⁽⁶⁾.

Southeast region

The first institution to create the laryngectomy choir in Brazil was Instituto Nacional de Câncer José Alencar Gomes da Silva (INCA), a Brazilian cancer institute, that in 1993 started INCAnto. Since then, several institutions have started to form choirs with their patients with a laryngectomy.

The Coral Sua Voz located in São Paulo, at the A.C. Camargo Cancer Center conducted by Speech-Language Pathologist Dr. Elisabete Carrara-de Angelis, started its activities in 1999. However, only in 2011, it was officially instituted as a choir of patients with total laryngectomy. Another group in the city of São Paulo called the Coral Amigos da Voz from the Cancer Institute of the State of São Paulo (in Portuguese Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo (ICESP)) was created in 2013 and is currently conducted by the Speech-Language Pathologist Laís Nunes. In the interior of the state, in the city of Campinas, the Coral Novo Canto from the Otorhinolaryngology Ambulatory of Hospital das Clínicas, UNICAMP was idealized and coordinated by the Speech-Language Pathologist Dr. Vaneli Colombo Rossi in 2014. In another city in the interior of São Paulo, Sorocaba, there is the Coral Fim de Papo, created and conducted by the head and neck surgeon Dr. Cira Danielle Casado Alves in 2017. In this year, the Coral Voz da Esperança from the São Vicente de Paulo Hospital of Charity was formed in Jundiaí, whose coordinator is the Speech-Language Pathologist Bruna da Silva Fulachi.

A little further from the capital of São Paulo, in the city of Barretos, the Speech-Language Pathologist Gisele Giroldo of Hospital do Amor - Barretos, coordinates the Coral Papo Furado, created in 2005.

In Espírito Santo state, in the capital Vitória, the Speech Language Pathologist Kadygie Mili Martins coordinates the Coral Viva Voz, created in 2016 at Hospital Santa Rita de Cássia. In Minas Gerais, in the metropolitan capital of Belo Horizonte, the Coral Laringectomizados UFMG, from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (in Portuguese Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG)) was created since 2005 under the coordination of the Speech Language Pathologist Dr. Laélia Cristina Caseiro Vicente. Also in Minas Gerais, in the city of Varginha, the Coral União da Voz from Bom Pastor Hospital, was created in 2011 and is currently coordinated by the Speech Language Pathologist Ana Tereza Carvalho Marinho; and, in the city of Muriaé, 315 km from the capital of Minas Gerais, the Speech Language Pathologist Camila Carvalho de Almeida leads the Coral Nova Voz of the Cristiano Varella Foundation, created in 2017.

Southern region

In the southern region of the country, the Speech-Language Pathologist Vera Beatriz Martins, coordinates Coral GALA in the city of Porto Alegre, active since 2006 at Hospital Santa Rita da Irmandade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Porto Alegre (in Portuguese Irmandade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Porto Alegre (ISCMPA)). In Santa Catarina, there are two choirs, the Cantarolar, today coordinated by the Speech-Language Pathologist Fabiane Becker Facco and the Speech-Language Pathologist Sophia Mota Constancio, created in 2016 by Associação Câncer Boca e Garganta (ACBG); and the Coral Grandes Guerreiros do Oeste, from the Hospital Regional do Oeste, coordinated by the Speech-Language Pathologist Luciara Giacobe, starting in January 2018. In the city of Curitiba, in the state of Paraná, the Speech-Language Pathologist Camila Molento coordinates the Coral Erasto Canto do Hospital Erasto Gaertner since 2016.

Midwest region

In the Midwest region of the country, Goiás is the only state with a choir for patients with a total laryngectomy. The group Coral Somos Iguais from Hospital Araújo Jorge is in the capital Goiânia exists since 2015 coordinated by the Speech-Language Pathologist Juliana Carla Gabriel Monteiro.

Northeast Region

In the Northeast region of the country, the state of Paraíba has the Coral Bela Voz at the Napoleão Laureano Hospital in its capital, João Pessoa. The choir has existed since 1994 and today is coordinated by the Speech-Language Pathologist Vivian Lisboa de Lucena. In Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, the Speech-Language Pathologist Erika Dasmasceno Espíndola coordinates the Coral Ressoar, created in 2008 at the Hospital do Câncer de Pernambuco- (HCP). In Rio Grande do Norte, in its capital, Natal, Maria Alice Cavalcanti from the Liga Contra o Câncer Hospital, coordinates the Coral Voz do Amor, created in 2015.

North region

There were no records of choirs from patients with total laryngectomy in the North region.

As mentioned before, these data are part of a survey in the second half of 2018, and there may be other services in the country with choirs of patients with a total laryngectomy, but not included in this first analysis because they were not located or recorded until the end of the survey, or by having appeared after this period. This number of choirs of patients with total laryngectomy may grow every year, providing more patients with an improvement in the quality of life that this activity develops.

• Trabalho realizado no Departamento de Voz da Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia, Comitê de Fononcologia - São Paulo (SP), Brasil.

• Financial support: Nothing to declare.

REFERÊNCIAS

• ¹
  Summers L. Social and quality of life impact using a voice prosthesis after laryngectomy. Current Opinion in Otolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery. 2017;25(3):188-194. PMid: 28277334. DOI: 10.1097/MOO.0000000000000361.
  » https://doi.org/10.1097/MOO.0000000000000361
• ²
  Keszte J, Danker H, Dietz A, et al. Mental disorders and psychosocial support during the first year after total laryngectomy: A prospective cohort study. Clin Otolaryngol. 2013; 38:494-501. PMid: 24188349. DOI: 10.1111/coa.12194.
  » https://doi.org/10.1111/coa.12194
• ³
  Perry A, Casey E, Cotton S. Quality of life after total laryngectomy: functioning, psychological well-being and self-efficacy - quality of life after total laryngectomy. Int J Lang Comm Disord. 2015; 50:467-475. PMid: 25703153. DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12148.
  » https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12148
• ⁴
  Offerman M, Pruyn J, de Boer M, et al. Psychosocial consequences for partners of patients after total laryngectomy and for the relationship between patients and partners. Oral Oncol. 2015; 51:389-398. PMid: 25631352. DOI: 10.1016/j.oraloncology.2014.12.008.
  » https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2014.12.008
• ⁵
  Danker H, Wollbruch D, Singer S, et al. Social withdrawal after laryngectomy. Eur ArchOtorhinolaryngol. 2010; 267:593-600. PMid: 19760214. DOI: 10.1007/s00405-009-1087-4.
  » https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-009-1087-4
• ⁶
  Onofre F, Ricz HMA, Takeshita-Monaretti TK, et al. Effect of singing training on total laryngectomees wearing a tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis. Acta Cirúrgica Brasileira. 2013; 28(2):119-125. DOI:10.1590/S0102-86502013000200006.
  » https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-86502013000200006

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  09 Nov 2020
• Date of issue
  2020

History

• Received
  18 Sept 2019
• Accepted
  29 Oct 2019