Postoperative Rehabilitation
摘要
The glossectomy procedure, in its various extents, represents a demolitive intervention with both aesthetic and, most importantly, functional impact, which can affect a patient’s quality of life (Thankappan K, Iyer S, Menon JR, Dysphagia management in head and neck cancers. Springer, Singapore, 2018). Speech therapy assessment and subsequent rehabilitation play a central role both in the preoperative and postoperative phases, strengthening and readapting the patient’s new anatomy in order to restore two fundamental human functions: eating and speaking. The first is essential for survival, but together with the second, it also fulfills a social role. Predictably, the greater the extent of the surgical resection, the more significant the functional impairments will be, affecting both articulation and swallowing.