Voice Box Transplant Offers a Medical Miracle

A team of surgeons affiliated with the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, United States, successfully transplanted a larynx to a man, giving hope to people who have lost their voices to cancer.

“Every day it’s getting better,” says patient Marty Kedian. “I wanted this so I could talk and breathe normally with my new granddaughter. I want to read her bedtime stories with my own voice.”

As part of a clinical trial to better explore the potential of such surgery, the Mayo Clinic team performed the tricky 21-hour operation on Kedian, a 59-year-old patient who has active cancer, using pioneering microsurgery to reconnect the nerves that help control swallowing and vocal cord movement. The larynx – sometimes called the voice box – contains the vocal cords that give sound to the human voice and the epiglottis that prevents food and liquid from entering the trachea. “People need to keep their voice; I want people to know this can be done.”