Voice disorder clinic in the speech therapy outpatient unit at "Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais"

This study set out to describe the profile of the patients with voice complaints and/or alterations who were attended between July 2003 and December 2006 at the speech therapy outpatient unit of "Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais." This was analyzed according to age, sex, profession, schooling, origin, treatment performed and factors that interfere in medical care evolution. This was a retrospective study based on the analysis of the recorded data of the individuals according to a specifically prepared Protocol. The results showed that the individuals included in this study were predominantly young women, referred by a specialist from Belo Horizonte, who do not work and also have incomplete elementary school education. Attendance of those patients was on an individual basis, and almost half of them were discharged by the speech therapist. The elderly patients, who have functional or psychogenic dysphonia and a neutral or wheezy type of voice, showed a close correlation with the discharge rate by speech therapist. The younger individuals with organo-functional dysphonia bore a statistical correlation with abandoning treatment. The individuals who eventually abandoned treatment did not bear any correlation with the crossed variables.