A British experience of surgical voice restoration as a primary procedure

It has been the aim of surgeons since Billroth first described laryngectomy to restore speech to the patient. However, a substantial percentage of patients fail to develop esophageal speech. Many authors have confirmed the success of the tracheoesophageal fistula procedure as a means of surgical voice restoration as a secondary procedure. We have performed tracheoesophageal puncture as a primary procedure at the time of laryngectomy in 36 patients, with a success rate of 89%. We believe that primary puncture is the method of choice for surgical voice restoration following laryngectomy.