Voice Prosthesis

If a patient has the larynx and pharynx removed surgically to treat cancer and can no longer make speech, one way to enable the patient to produce a voice is to surgically create a hole in the trachea, the main windpipe with cartilage, and attach a device that can be used to replace the sound that a voice makes. Other voice prostheses include a handheld electrolarynx or a palatal vibrating device that is placed into the mouth to generate sound that the patient can modify to produce intelligible words.