Glossectomy: a case report.

A 27-year-old man, a law student, underwent partial glossectomy, right hemimandibulectomy and radical neck dissection due to recurrent carcinoma of the oral cavity. These surgical procedures resulted in severe swallowing and speech difficulties for which he was treated by tube feeding and speech therapy, respectively. Emphasis in therapy was placed on compensatory articulator techniques for the improvement of speech intelligibility. Those adaptive tongue stump, labial, and palato-pharyngeal compensations which were employed are discussed. After. 9 months of speech therapy, he was judged to have achieved fair-to good speech intelligibility, and was able to continue law school. At the time of this writing, he was practicing law.