UC Davis surgeons perform world’s second documented voicebox transplant.

In one of the most complex transplant surgeries ever performed, an international team of surgeons at UC Davis Medical Center has restored the voice of a California woman who had been unable to speak for more than a decade.

The surgical team announced today that they replaced the larynx (voicebox), thyroid gland and trachea (windpipe) in a 52-year-old Modesto woman who had lost her ability to speak and breathe on her own. The 18-hour operation, which took place over a two-day period in October 2010, is only the second documented case of its kind in the world. Just 13 days after the operation, the patient voiced her first words in 11 years and is now able to speak easily and at length.

On Jan. 20, when she meets in Sacramento with her entire surgical team for the first time since the transplant, patient Brenda Charett Jensen will be able to speak for herself about the remarkable surgery and what it has meant to her, and to her family and friends.

“This operation has restored my life,” said Jensen, who was raised in the San Joaquin Valley town of Patterson, Calif. “I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity. It is a miracle. I’m talking, talking, talking, which just amazes my family and friends. I am deeply grateful to the donor and to the donor family for making this gift possible for me.”

The only other documented larynx transplant took place at the Cleveland Clinic in 1998. For the physicians in the UC Davis case, the novel procedure has advanced knowledge in the field of transplant medicine and otolaryngology.

“We are absolutely delighted with the results of this extraordinary case,” said Gregory Farwell, associate professor of otolaryngology at UC Davis and lead surgeon for the transplant. “The larynx is an incredibly complex organ, with intricate nerves and muscles functioning to provide voice and allow breathing. Our success required that we assemble an exceptional, multi-disciplinary team, use the most recent advances in surgical and rehabilitation techniques, and find a patient who would relish the daunting challenges of undergoing the transplant and the work necessary to use her new voicebox.”

Prior to the transplant, Jensen was unable to speak or breathe normally because of complications stemming from a previous surgery several years ago that closed off her airway and made her completely dependent on a tracheotomy tube. For more than a decade, she has been limited to vocalizing words using a handheld electronic device that produces an artificial, robot-like sound. In order to breathe, she has relied on the tracheotomy, which is still in place and visible at the base of her neck.

Jensen’s 18-hour procedure was followed by two months of rehabilitation. Her newly restored voice, while sounding hoarse at times, has improved significantly since the transplant as her nerves regenerate and she learns again how to speak. While the donor organ came from an accident victim, Jensen’s voice is her own and not that of the female donor. The transplant has allowed Jensen to smell and taste for the first time in years. She is in the process of relearning to swallow and hopes to soon be able to eat and drink normally again.

Farwell led a surgical team that included Peter Belafsky, associate professor of otolaryngology at UC Davis Health System; Martin Birchall, professor of laryngology at the University College London Ear Institute in England; Paolo Macchiarini, professor of regenerative surgery at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet; and Quang Luu, assistant professor of otolaryngology at UC Davis Health System. The entire transplantation involved nearly two dozen physicians, nurses, technicians, transplant coordinators and other UC Davis medical personnel.

“This is the kind of surgical advance that only academic health centers can accomplish,” said Belafsky, who brought Jensen’s case to the attention of his colleagues and was the transplant project’s principal investigator. “This operation required extensive planning and a range of specialties. We all benefitted from the university’s highly collaborative environment, which fully supported and assembled the resources necessary for this type of procedure.”

UC Davis helped fund much of Jensen’s hospital-related costs, with most of the surgical team donating their time and efforts to the project.

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