Rare larynx surgery done to restore woman's voice

ST. LOUIS -- Amy Hancock may be getting her voice back soon.

Hancock, 26, lost her larynx to cancer five years ago. Rare surgery Friday at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis aimed to restore her voice.

The surgery lasted 10 hours and went well, Washington University School of Medicine spokeswoman Joni Westerhouse said Friday night. It will take three to five weeks to know whether the procedure will restore Hancock's voice, she said.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Dr. Randal C. Paniello, a head and neck surgeon at the Washington University School of Medicine, was to remove tissue from Hancock's left arm during the surgery and fashion it into a tube that may enable Hancock to talk. The surgery has never been done in the United States, but has helped at least 10 people in Germany talk after losing their larynxes.

Previous surgeries, including botox injections, have failed to restore Hancock's speech. She uses an electrolarynx, a device that creates vibrations, allowing users to speak, though the sound is robotic.

Hancock, a one-time country music DJ, had to alter her career plans. She now works in the membership office at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

When Paniello approached her with the chance to try the new technique, she jumped at it.

A patch of skin

The process, described before Friday's surgery, called for Paniello to remove a patch of skin from Hancock's left arm and take an artery and vein to feed the flap of skin. He was to repair the wound in Hancock's arm with a skin graft from her leg.

The doctor was to fashion the 2-inch-by-2-inch patch of skin into a breathing tube inserted into Hancock's trachea. The German doctors simply extend the windpipe with the tube of skin when the larynx is removed, but Hancock's trachea has been turned to allow her to breathe through a permanent hole in her throat. Consequently, Paniello was to make an incision in the trachea and insert the skin tube to reconnect Hancock's trachea and esophagus.

Hancock said she looks forward to the chance to express herself without the use of the electrolarynx.

"I think my life will be better with a more normal-sounding voice," Hancock said.

The new voice won't be completely normal, Paniello said. "She won't end up with a high-frequency feminine sound," he said. Physics won't allow it.

The tissues in the neck will vibrate at a frequency lower than most men's voices. Patients who talk without larynxes have a rumbling, gravely voice, Paniello said.