Novel one-step system for restoring voice in throat cancer patients

Source: medicalxpress.com This picture shows the cannula (A) and the tool (B) for inserting the voice prosthesis which is usually made of silicon (partly shown on the left side of the tool). This tool will then be inserted into the cannula so that it can be injected into the patient's fistula according to the length required, using the calibration on the cannula. Credit: National University of Singapore. Patients who have lost their voice box through disease such as throat cancer may be able to speak immediately after a procedure to create a small opening at the throat. A novel system developed through an Engineering-in-Medicine project led by Dr Chui Chee Kiong, NUS Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr David Lau, Consultant Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Surgeon at Raffles Hospital, cuts down a two-week duration before patients can speak, to about 10 minutes after the initial procedure. People who undergo laryngectomy and lose their voice box can recover approximately 80 per cent of normal speech by having a voice prosthesis fitted into an opening or fistula between the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (food pipe). To speak, the patient covers the stoma (breathing opening in the neck) with his or her thumb and forces air through the prosthesis into the esophagus and out through the mouth. Before the prosthesis can be inserted, the doctor needs to make a small puncture (tracheo-esophageal puncture or TEP) in the wall between the trachea and esophagus. During the puncture, a guide-wire is inserted into the [...]