Development of Voice Prosthesis for Laryngectomized Patients
Project Description: This is a project funded by FINEP in partnership with the Center for Oncology Research of Santa Catarina (Centro de Pesquisas Oncológicas de Santa Catarina – CEPON) and with the cooperation of teachers Ana Carolina Ghirardi (Department of Phonoaudiology, UFSC) and Carlos Rodrigo Roesler (Biomechanical Engineering Laboratory LEBm). Its goal is to meet the demand of patients who have lost their voice as a result of laryngeal cancer. These are set as goals:
1) Develop a voice prosthesis by similarity, based on imported tracheoesophageal valves, currently available on the market;
2) Develop the patent of a new tracheoesophageal prosthesis, which allows its adequacy according to the physiological characteristics of each patient.
To achieve these goals, different research is being carried out within the project, encompassing the manufacture, testing and optimization of voice prostheses, the study of the dynamic behavior of the pharyngoesophageal segment (which is the sound source of the tracheoesophageal voice) and the study of the mechanics of the voice produced by the vocals folds.
Coordinator/ Participants:Andrey Ricardo da Silva(coordinator); Ana Carolina Ghirardi (collaborator); Carlos Rodrigo Roesler (collaborator); André Miazaki Tourinho (participant/LVA UFSC); Nivaldo Lopo Júnior (participant/ LVA UFSC); Maria Júlia Mezzari (participant/ LVA UFSC); João Pedro Petrassi(participant/ LVA UFSC); Luciano Fontes e Silva (participant/ LEBm UFSC); Gabrieli Cercal (participant/ Phonoaudiology UFSC); Isadora Nunes (participant/ Phonoaudiology UFSC).
Publications: Santos, F. H. T., da Silva, A. R., Tourinho, A. M. C. & Erath, B. Influence of position and angulation of a voice prosthesis on the aerodynamics of the pseudo-glottis. Journal of Biomechanics 125, (2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110594
Tourinho, A. M. da C., da Silva, A. R., dos Santos, L. R. M., Thomaz, F. B. & Vieira, E. G. A study on tracheoesophageal phonation based on a collapsible channel model. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 149, (2021). http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0003817
Project images:
 Image 1: Experimental bench for the study of flow through synthetic vocal folds. |
 Image 2: Detail of synthetic vocal folds mounted on the experimental bench. |
 Image 3: Modeling of the new prototype of voice prosthesis developed from optimizations. |
 Image 4: Voice prosthesis manufactured for initial testing. |
 Image 5: CFD simulation of air flow through the prosthesis. |
 Image 6: CFD simulation of air flow through the prosthesis. |
 Image 7: Simulation of air flow through a voice prosthesis. |
