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STRASBOURG, France: In collaboration with a French medical device company, ENT specialists at the University of Strasbourg have successfully completed the first implantation of an artificial larynx in a patient. They hope that the device will help cancer patients who have undergone a laryngectomy breathe, speak and eat normally again through the upper respiratory tract.
The device, called ENTegral, was developed by PROTiP, a Strasbourg-based medical device company, which develops solutions for patients with laryngeal malfunction.
The device was implanted into a 65-year-old male patient in June 2012 by Dr Christian Debry, a professor at the university’s ENT department, and his team. As he was suffering from laryngeal cancer, the surgical team first removed the patient’s larynx and implanted a tracheal titanium ring, the first component of the artificial larynx, in order to recreate the connection normally formed by the larynx, Debry explained. In a second surgery performed in November 2012, the fitting of the artificial larynx was completed with the insertion of a valve-based device.
According to the company, after implantation of the device that partially replicates the natural functions of the larynx, the patient was able to breathe through the upper respiratory tract again.
PROTiP and the university announced that they will continue to develop the technology and the surgical procedure before making the therapy more widely available. They also stated that a European-wide clinical study is currently underway.
According to Cancer Research UK, 150,000 new cases of laryngeal cancer were diagnosed in 2008 worldwide, including 28,000 cases in Europe alone. Conventionally, patients undergo a tracheostomy, a surgical procedure to create an opening through the neck into the trachea, enabling the patient to breathe via a tube placed in his or her throat, after a laryngectomy. With the new procedure, the researchers hope to ultimately help patients regain their ability to breathe, speak and eat normally.
