A novel surgical procedure allows Sherry Wittenberg – a cancer patient to keep her voice.

The curved tip of a patient’s scapula, or shoulder blade, provides the right combination of attributes, Chepeha explains. And the blood vessels feeding the scapula tissue are left intact.
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A graft of tissue from the inside of Wittenberg’s mouth was used to help reconstruct the lining of her larynx.
We had to pay a great deal of attention to the muscles and cartilage that were attached to the cricoid, Chepeha says. We had to carefully detach them, check that we had adequately removed the tumor, and then, once the scapular tip was in position, we had to reattach the muscles and cartilage.
Within just three months, Sherry was able to return to work, her voice intact and her larynx cancer-free.
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Today, Wittenberg says her breathing has returned to normal and her speech is very close to what it was before the operation.
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I feel like it was a miracle, Wittenberg adds. I happened to be in the right place with the right surgeon at the right time who was willing to try something that had never been done.
Source-Newswise