Throat Transplant in Poland Successfully Performed on Cancer Patient

Doctors in Poland have reportedly performed a successful throat-area transplant on a 37-year-old patient with advanced cancer of the voice box.

The transplant surgery involved the voice box, windpipe, esophagus, and thyroid gland along with the adjacent glands, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and skin, The Associated Press reported.

The patient, who previously couldn’t breathe, swallow, or speak, whispered thanks during a news conference at the Oncology Center in the southern town of Gliwice, the AP said.

The surgery was the most extensive such transplant performed, with two other similar but less extensive transplants performed previously in the world. The 17-hour surgery was performed on April 17. Doctors are still monitoring the patient for the possibility of infection and rejection.

The patient, identified as Michal, had a kidney transplant in 2001 and was considered an ideal candidate in part because of the medication he was taking to prevent a rejection of the transplanted kidney, the AP said.

The Gliwice center successfully performed the world’s first lifesaving emergency face transplant in 2013. That procedure was completed during 27 hours on May 15, 2013, whereas previous face transplants had taken months or even years of preparation, the Daily Mail reported.

That patient required reconstruction of his face, jaws, palate, and the bottom of his eye sockets as the result of an industrial accident. He has returned to an active life, according to the AP.

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