Voice restoration surgery is a success

Amy Hancock had three weeks to figure out what her first words would be. Hancock, who lost her voice to laryngeal cancer five and a half years ago, had time to think about it after undergoing an innovative larynx restoration surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on May 23. On June 16 her surgeon, Washington University otolaryngologist Randal Paniello removed a tube from her throat, allowing her to speak for the first time post-op. Her first words: "Thank you Dr. Paniello."

"I expect her voice will get better," says Paniello. "We're still sort of working out some of the kinks in the system." Paniello is the first to perform the innovative surgery in the United States. "The goal is to recreate an air passageway from the back of the windpipe into the front of the swallowing passage." Typically, doctors create that passageway with a plastic prosthetic that allows air to flow and generate vibrations and speech.

•	Voice restoration surgery is a success KITV-TV Honolulu, HI, Monday, March 15, 2004

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