[Voice rehabilitation after laryngectomy]. / Stimmrehabilitation nach Laryngektomie.

Laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinomas are among the most common malignant tumours of the head and neck region, accounting for about 3,000 new cases per year. Despite enormous advances in organ preservation surgery and chemoradiotherapy, total laryngectomy is still necessary in approximately one quarter of affected patients. The removal of the larynx results in the loss of 3 important functions, i. e., voice production, the air conditioning mechanism of the nose, and the ability to smell. Whereas voice rehabilitation has been a mainstay of treatment from the very beginning of laryngeal surgery, pulmonary and olfactory rehabilitation has received increasing attention only in the past 2 decades. Today every head and neck surgical oncologist should be familiar with the various methods of voice rehabilitation and the use of heat and moisture exchangers for air conditioning. The objective of this article is to provide an overview of current methods of rehabilitation after total laryngectomy and to introduce young surgeons with an interest in voice rehabilitation to available techniques.

[Dislocation of voice prostheses. Interdisciplinary management of diagnostics and treatment]. / Dislokation von Stimmprothesen. Interdisziplinäres Vorgehen bei Diagnostik und Therapie.

Tracheoesophageal voice prostheses after total laryngectomy are infrequently the cause of severe complications. We report on a patient with threefold dislocation of a Provox prosthesis, each with suspected oesophageal loss. The patient came to our hospital with acute dyspnoea. An urgent bronchoscopy showed two prostheses in the right and one in the left main bronchus, which had caused inflammation with extensive occlusion of the bronchus. All three prostheses could be recovered.