Kinesio Taping in Dysphonic Patients

Abstract

Objective: Kinesio taping (KT) is a method of elastic bandaging that produces a biomechanical effect on the organism. This study aims to evaluate its use in dysphonic patients tratment, as integrated part of speech therapy.

Study design: Randomized controlled MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen dysphonic patients were given the option to complement the speech therapy treatment with KT (DG1). 15 dysphonic patients suffering from similar conditions (DG2) who underwent traditional speech therapy were the control group.

Results: After treatment, both DG1 and DG2 obtained a statistically significant improvement for jitter and noise-to-harmonic ratio (P >0.05) and showed an improvement in Voice Handicap Index (VHI) total (VHIt), VHI functional (VHIf), VHI emotional (VHIe), and VHI physical (VHIp). However, the improvement was statistically significant for VHIt (P =0.0102), VHIe (P =0.0349), and VHIp (P =0.0366) in DG1, and only in VHIt (P =0.0466) in DG2. In DG1, P had a lower value than in DG2 for VHIt, VHIe, and VHIp. In DG2, there were a few patients who after therapy had a VHIt higher than before therapy, whereas this did not occur in DG1.

Conclusions: As expected, this study confirms the benefits of speech therapy. Although KT is not a substitute for speech therapy, our preliminary results and patients' favorable response to KT encouraged us to continue with our studies on a larger scale. Further studies are required to better define the role of KT in speech therapy and evaluate its real effect over its placebo effect.

Keywords: Dysphonia; Kinesio taping; Muscle tension dysphonia; Speech therapy; Taping.