3D printing helps student give voice to patients following laryngectomy procedures

A student from South Ural State University (Chelyabinsk, Russia), has utilized 3D printing to design voice prostheses for patients recovering from laryngectomy procedures - where the larynx is completely removed - compromising speech. Implanting a voice prosthesis in a cancer patient undergoing a laryngectomy procedure - where the larynx is completely removed to prolong life - is not uncommon practice in the developed world. Plastic prostheses work by allowing for the exhalation and subsequent forwarding of air from the trachea to the esophagus, causing the walls of the esophagus and lower pharynx to vibrate, thus producing a noise. However, the...