The impact of radiotherapy and GERD on in situ lifetime of indwelling voice prostheses.

The aim of this study was (1) to analyze the in situ lifetime of indwelling voice prostheses (VPs) and (2) to investigate the role of some variables on device lifetime. We conducted a retrospective clinical study of patients visiting our outpatient clinic for problems related to their VP from August 1998 to March 2006. The mean in situ VP lifetime was 180.9 days (95% CI 162.6-199.2). The mean in situ VP lifetime was 163.3 and 202.9 days in patients irradiated and not irradiated, respectively (P = 0.008). The mean in situ VP lifetime was 126.5 and 215.7 days in patients with and without endoscopic evidence of erosive-ulcerative gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), respectively (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis confirmed that radiotherapy and presence of GERD significantly affected the in situ VP lifetime. This study confirmed the relationship between short VP lifetime and radiation therapy. In addition, a possible association between GERD and limited device lifetime was identified.