Phonoaudiological profile of patients in post-operative research of intracranial tumor

Primary intracranial tumors have increased the incidence and mortality rate in recent years. The speech-language disorders found in patients with intracranial tumor vary according to the histological type and anatomical location. Objective: To characterize the population of post-surgical patients with resection of intracranial tumors treated by the Speech-Language Pathology Service from January 2015 to January 2018. Methods: This is a cross-sectional retrospective study, carried out at the University Hospital of the Maranhão Federal Unit-Presidente Dutra Unit, with a sample by convenience, based on the data collected in the medical records and speech therapy protocols. The data were treated using the Stata software, version 14.0. The normality of continuous variables was verified by the Shapiro Wilk test. Student’s t-tests were used for continuous variables and Fisher’s exact or Chi-square tests for categorical ones. Results: 22 speech therapy protocols were analyzed. Gender equality was observed (50% men and 50% women). Average age of 48.77. Meningioma was the most prevalent type of tumor (41.0%). As for location, most tumors were located in the left frontal region (22.7%), but it was observed that tumors in the posterior fossa were more severe. Changes in speech articulation (p=0.002), vocal quality (p=0.007), mobility (p=0.001), sensitivity (p=0.020), tonicity (p=0.003), altered oropharyngeal dynamics (p=0.048) and wet vocal quality (p=0.034) were associated with a worse speech-language profile. Conclusion: The speech-language disorders found and the degree of dysphagia were directly associated with the location of the tumor in the posterior fossa.