Effect of Vocal Exercise on Respiratory Function and Voice Quality in Patients with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: A Mini-review

Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) can lead to respiratory dysfunction, which negatively affects vocal quality. Vocal exercise improves respiratory muscle strength and includes various exercises such as singing. Singing requires strong inhalations and regulated exhalations, potentially improving respiratory function and voice quality in people with cervical SCI. Vocal exercises are easier to monitor and don't require special equipment. This mini-review investigates the effect of vocal exercise on patients with cervical SCI, acknowledging the limited number of articles and the challenges in performing a meta-analysis.

• 1
  Vocal exercises were reported to have a significant positive effect on respiratory function in all studies included in the review.
• 2
  Three studies reported that vocal exercises had a positive effect on voice quality in patients with cervical SCI.
• 3
  Vocal exercises improved VC, TLC, IC, RV, FEV1, and FVC by about 1.3- to 1.5-fold and improved FEV1/FVC by 1.2-fold compared with controls.