A woman recently benefited from the first larynx transplant in France, in a surgical intervention provided on Monday in Lyon (Middle East) by a medical team that hopes to repeat this rare “feat” globally soon.

The patient, identified only by her first name, Karen (age 49), breathed without speaking through a tracheostomy for almost 20 years due to complications related to inhalation after a heart attack in 1996. .

A few days after the transplant in Lyon on September 2nd and 3rd, Karen was able to say a few words. Since then, he has followed vocal cord, swallowing and respiratory rehabilitation sessions with a speech therapist, hoping to regain the ability to speak permanently. His immunosuppressive treatment was intensified after the transplanted organ was rejected, but he was able to return to his home in the south of France on October 26.

Therefore, she could not participate in the conference to present the surgery on Monday, but explained in writing that she volunteered to participate in this scientific experiment 10 years ago to “return to a normal life”. She wrote: “My daughters have never heard me speak,” insisting she had the “courage” and “patience” to face the pain and get back on track.

Professor Philippe Serous, Head of the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Croix-Rousse Hospital, expressed his determination before coordinating this unprecedented transplant in France.

Function “accidentally”

The idea of ​​this surgical intervention arose after the world’s first larynx transplant, which was performed in 1998 in Cleveland, USA, on a man who lost his vocal cords in a motorcycle accident.

The surgeon inquired about the matter, but he did not get very far, until in 2010, he met “a little by chance” during a conference, a Colombian colleague who repeated the operation without revealing any information.

Dr. Luis Fernando Tentenago Londono invited him to the Colombian city of Cali for a week to teach him how to retract the larynx, “which is one of the most complicated aspects” because this organ “has very small veins and is supplied with blood.” Very small vessels that can be interrupted by arteries and veins,” says Professor Siros.

Over the next decade, he trained with a panel of experts, gained approvals and began searching for qualified patients. In 2019, he met “Karen”. But the covid pandemic brought everything to a halt.

Meanwhile, the world’s medical records indicate two larynx transplants, one in California in 2010 and another in Poland in 2015. This number is not large; Because no priority is given to these functions; Laryngeal dysfunction leads to severe disability, but is not life-threatening for patients.

Uterus and penis

In 2022, the French medical team returned to finish what they started in this field. All that remains is for him to find a suitable donor, which, for the larynx, has “anatomical characteristics that are completely compatible with the recipient in terms of sex, weight, height, blood type….”

This happened on 1st September. After the consent of the family, it was possible to start the surgical intervention, which lasted 27 hours, including about 10 hours to remove the larynx and 17 hours to replace it.

12 surgeons and around 50 staff members from the Lyon University Hospital participated in the operation, a first in France, under the coordination of Professor Serous and his colleague Lionel Padet, head of the Department of Nephrology and Transplantation at the Edouard Hérieux Hospital.

Although there is a sense of “pride” in this medical “heroism,” the French medical community remains cautious. “It is up to the patient to decide whether the operation is successful or not,” points out Professor Siros, adding that it takes 12 to 18 months to restore motor functions in the larynx, “this is the perfect time for the nerve to grow back. .” So he’ll wait until she’s “fully healthy” before performing two throat transplants, which he has the budget for.

Lyon Hospitals previously performed the world’s first hand transplant in 1998, and the first transplant of both hands in 2000 at the hands of one of the pioneers of organ transplantation, Professor Jean-Michel Duperner, who died in 2021.

Professor Bede recalled that he participated in this “alternative adventure” that opened up to new specializations. After hands, forearms and throats, we are expected to witness “womb and penis transplants” in the near future.