After vocal fold surgery it is common to recommend voice rest for a certain time. The recommendations whether this should be complete voice rest or relative voice rest as well as the recommendations how long voice rest should be as well as whether whispering should be allowed, are diverse. There are some publications on these questions, mostly based on questionnaires, that demonstrate that there are a lot of different recommendations, but only few controlled studies on this topic. In this article the authors give an overview of the literature and their own recommendations, based on experience with phonosurgery and postoperative findings. Their recommendation for patients after vocal fold surgery is that they are allowed to whisper (soft whispering) immediately after the operation. Depending on the operation technique the authors recommend relative voice rest for 3 – 5 days and instruct patients to do voice exercises (soft glissando with closed mouth) after the 3 rd day. To their opinion, most harm could be done by coughing and throat clearing, which should be strictly avoided.
Die Empfehlungen, wie nach einer Stimmlippenoperation die Stimme zu schonen oder zu gebrauchen sei, sind weltweit sehr unterschiedlich. Nicht selten werden die Patienten zu mehrwöchiger kompletter Stimmruhe angehalten. Flüstern wird im Allgemeinen nicht als Alternative angeboten. Aufgrund langjähriger Erfahrungen halten die Autoren des Beitrags dagegen einen frühzeitigen, kontrollierten Stimmgebrauch im Sinne einer Frührehabilitation für wichtig