Introduction: Surgical procedures, especially total laryngectomy, have a profound adverse effect on the patient's physical, functional, as well as emotional health, and strongly decrease quality of life. Tracheoesophageal puncture is one of the most significant method that is widely performed successfully by physicians. Current valve technology enables long expiring duration; however, gen...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS Primary tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP) is a well-described and accepted method of surgical voice restoration and is standardly completed with a catheter placement intraoperatively, which is replaced with a prosthesis at a later date. This study evaluates the intraoperative placement of the voice prosthesis at the time of the primary TEP in an effort to understand the pot...

BACKGROUND This study investigated the patient's self-report and clinician's confirmation of tracheoesophageal voice prosthesis leakage patterns (through or around) with or without the cough reflex and whether prosthesis diameter affected the leakage route. METHODS Sixty-six consecutive participants with a total of 200 patient-initiated reasons for prosthesis changes were enrolled prospective...

Voice prosthesis-assisted speech rehabilitation after total laryngectomy has proven to be successful in the majority of patients and exceeds the results of traditional oesophageal speech. Nevertheless 10-30% failure rates are still reported. In part this is due to prosthesis-related problems, in particular ingrowth of Candida species in the valve-bearing parts of the devices. A new indwelling, ...

Introduction: Total laryngectomy/pharingo-laryngectomy is a potentially aggressive surgery for advanced laryngeal/hypopharyngeal carcinomas, which results in important physical and functional changes that compromise some of the most vital functions, including speech communication. For these patients, tracheoesophageal speech is considered to be the gold standard for voice rehabilitation. Object...

Despite emergent progress in many fields of bionics, a functional Bionic Voice prosthesis for laryngectomy patients (larynx amputees) has not yet been achieved, leading to a lifetime of vocal disability for these patients. This study introduces a novel framework of Pneumatic Bionic Voice Prostheses as an electronic adaptation of the Pneumatic Artificial Larynx (PAL) device. The PAL is a non-inv...

Various complications are associated with the use of indwelling voice prostheses. We present problems faced by a patient with his Voice-Master prosthesis, the ingestion of the prosthesis followed by a potentially fatal aspiration. The Voice-Master is unique in that in can be re-inserted. The safety strap is removed after primary insertion once the prosthesis is secure. However, during re-insert...

Loss of voice after total laryngectomy propter laryngeal cancer disables a person to successfully communicate with patient environment and can lead to total isolation. Learning esophageal speech in some cases is not successful. Vocal prosthesis insertion can resolve this condition. This retrospective study shows voice and speech rehabilitation in patients after total laryngectomy and installati...

OBJECTIVES Secondary tracheoesophageal (TE) puncture standardly involves placement of a catheter at time of TE fistula creation. We explore the feasibility of placement of the prosthesis at the time of TE puncture (TEP) obviating the need for a subsequent procedure to place the prosthesis. We describe the technique and evaluate the success and potential advantages. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective ...