A physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, Dr. Peter Blendonohy serves the needs of patients throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. With extensive experience in addressing occupational and physical therapy needs, Dr. Peter Blendonohy assists individuals with, among other things, various speech issues.
Speech therapy rehabilitation often occurs following surgical procedures such as cordectomy, which involves the removal of a vocal cord due to laryngeal cancer tumors. Post-cordectomy speech therapy focuses on utilizing the cord and neocord in ways that avoid non-spontaneous compensations that can damage the voice. This begins with setting in place an optimal respiratory dynamic through costo-diaphragmatic breathing and emphasizing pneumophonoarticulatory coordination.
In vocal re-education situations where physiological cord-neocord compensation is impossible due to the post-surgery anatomy of the larynx, phonatory exercises focus on a strengthening of the arytenoepiglottic (sphincteric) voice, or false cord. This allows the patient to develop a voice that works sufficiently for everyday interpersonal relationships.