Strategies to decrease biofilm formation on voice prostheses

Laryngectomized patients lose their natural ability to speak as a result of rigorous anatomical changes after surgery. Due to the surgical resection of a laryngeal tumour, the larynx or voice box is taken out and the trachea is sutured in the neck. As a consequence the airflow through the oropharynx, and so the ability to articulate and speak is lost (Fig. 1A). Luckily however, we do not necessarily need our vocal cords to produce sound, since sound is nothing more than a series of alternate increases and decreases of air pressure, transmitted as a wave. Based on this mechanism laryngectomized patients can learn to speak again for example by oesophageal speech. Swallowed air into the oesophagus will come out with regurgitation vibrating the mucosa of the neopharynx. However this method has been abandoned because it is difficult for most patients to learn this technique, tracheoesophageal shunt speech is generally preferred