Impact of Manual Therapy on Laryngeal Function Following Total Thyroidectomy

Summary

In this clinical trial, the investigators are seeking to learn if a course of voice therapy, including neck massage, stretches and pain science education in addition to voice exercise and scar massage will effectively treatment patient complaints of swallowing or voice changes after total thyroidectomy as compared to voice exercise and scar massage alone.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Will neck massage, stretches and pain science education reduce patient complaints of swallowing changes after total thyroidectomy?

Will neck massage, stretches and pain science education reduce patient complaints of voice changes after total thyroidectomy?

Will neck massage, stretches and pain science education reduce patient complaints of scar tethering and quality changes after total thyroidectomy?

Will neck massage, stretches and pain science education improve quality of life after total thyroidectomy?

Participants will:

Participate in 4 visits with the participant's endocrine/laryngology surgeon. One prior and 3 after surgery for endoscopic evaluation and tests.

Participate in 5 Speech-Language Pathology Sessions for intervention exercises and tests. One prior and 4 after surgery.

Complete a journal of the participant's Home Exercise Practice

Conditions

• Total Thyroidectomy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Anterior Neck Manual Therapy

Manual massage applied to the anterior neck, including hyolaryngeal elevators, depressors, sternocleidomastoid.

BEHAVIORAL

Pain Neuroscience Education

Description of how the pain system works from a neurobiological level, discussing the biopsychosocial model that influences pain.

BEHAVIORAL

Neck Stretches

Bilateral cervical side bending, cervical extension and bilateral rotational neck stretches held for 20 seconds x3.

BEHAVIORAL

Scar massage

Digital manipulation of the scar itself in circles.

BEHAVIORAL

Voice Exercises

Stemple Voice Exercises

BEHAVIORAL

Placebo Anterior Neck Manual Therapy

Will apply extremely light manual contact to the anterior neck, including hyolaryngeal elevators, depressors, sternocleidomastoid.

BEHAVIORAL

Placebo Pain Neuroscience Education

Will discuss how pain will as a result of the surgical intervention.

BEHAVIORAL

Placebo Neck Stretches

Will ask patient to look down as a neck stretch held for 20 seconds x3.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Johns Hopkins University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Vaninder Dhillon, MD · Johns Hopkins University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-06-03

Primary Completion

2027-12-31

Completion

2027-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations