Abstract
Total laryngectomy is a standard treatment for advanced cancers of the larynx and hypopharynx.It deprives the patients of speech communication resulting in compromised QOL, however, it is an excellent operation as far as the curability of cancers is concerned. Doctors, nurses, speech therapists and patients organizations should treat and support the patients cooperatively from the early pre-operative stage considering their loss of functions such as phonation after the operation. In this paper we described indication and method of the total laryngectomy, functional losses after total laryngectomy based on the anatomy and physiology of the larynx, recent trials for laryngeal preservation, reconstructive methods of phonation and voice rehabilitation.
