Man receives rare voice box transplant at Mayo Clinic in Arizona

A Massachusetts man has regained his voice after surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona removed his cancerous larynx and replaced it with a donated one.

Transplants of the voice box are extremely rare and normally aren't an option for people with active cancer. The patient, who is part of a new clinical trial at Mayo, is only the third person in the U.S. to undergo a total larynx transplant and one of a handful reported worldwide.

The trial aims to expand the transplants for people who can't breathe, swallow or speak on their own because of injuries or cancer. The team at Mayo reported early results of the surgery in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona offered Marty Kedian the transplant as part of a new clinical trial aimed at opening the potentially lifechanging operation to more patients, including some with cancer, the most common way to lose a larynx.

“People need to keep their voice,” Kedian, 59, told The Associated Press four months after his transplant – still hoarse but able to keep up an hourlong conversation. “I want people to know this can be done.”

https://www.kjzz.org/news/2024-07-09/man-receives-rare-voice-box-transplant-at-mayo-clinic-in-arizona