Claimed to be for the first time in India, Larynx cancer was successfully removed without patients losing their voice after which the larynx was reconstructed through micro vascular surgery at a private hospital here.
Head & Neck Consultant of the Lakeshore hospital Dr Shawn T Joseph and Plastic Surgeon Dr Jose Tharayil said the rare surgery was successfully conducted on a 49-year-old male patient from Gujrat and 68-year-old male patient from Malappuram in Kerala in the last three months. Both patients used to have recurrent Cancer of the larynx after radiation treatment.
These cases are usually treated by a procedure called total laryngectomy, where the patient loses his natural speech function and has direct opening of the trachea (wind pipe) to the outside through the neck, Dr Shawn said.
In total laryngectomy, not only the diseased part of the larynx, but the normal functioning part is also removed. This exposes the lungs to all the pollutants outside with minimal protection mechanism.
In the surgery, only the affected part of the larynx with just the adequate margin of tissue required for a cancer surgery was removed under endoscope guidance. The remaining larynx was reconstructed by Microvascular surgery using tissue taken from scalp, ear cartilage and buccal mucosa. Both patients are are able to speak and swallow using their reconstructed larynx, dr Shawn said.
