title: Eating again: a physician's personal experience after laryngectomy.
abstract: This article presents the author's personal experiences in eating again after becoming a laryngectomee. He was diagnosed with hypopharyngeal carcinoma and underwent total laryngectomy with a free flap reconstruction. The personal story is told in the hope that nutritionists and other health care providers will realize the difficult challenges in obtaining adequate nutrition that a patient diagnosed with cancer who undergoes laryngectomy must face. These include the effects of radiation treatment and surgery, which create functional and anatomical changes that make swallowing difficult.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA. ib6@georgetown.edu
authors.forename: Itzhak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Brook
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D003679:Deglutition; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D004435:Eating; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007012:Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000601:surgery; D007825:Laryngectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000534:rehabilitation; D019736:Prostheses and Implants / Q000009:adverse effects; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013651:Taste Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome