[The vocal rehabilitation with ESKA-Herrmann voice prosthesis. a report of a 10 years' experience]

ESKA-Herrmann voice prosthesis are available for almost 30 years and are used for the vocal rehabilitation of laryngectomees. Nevertheless there are no studies about this voice prosthesis. Especially because of the smaller external diameter of 5.5 mm differents to other voice prostheses may be expected.We analyzed the 10-year patient documentation in retrospect.67 patients (63 m/4f) got the ESKA-Herrmann voice prosthesis, which could be used with a mean lifetime of 131.4 days. The main reason of changing the prostheses were dislocation (34/119), loss by coughing (34/119) and the leakage around the prostheses. In total a good voice was documented in 83.9% of the prostheses.ESKA-Herrmann voice prostheses are an alternative to other prostheses. Because of the smaller external diameter the dislocation and loss of the prosthesis occur more often than other models. But it's the only model that allows a designated spontaneous closure of the trachea-esophageal fistula after prosthesis removal.