On December 31, 1873, in the Vienna
surgery clinic, the German surgeon Theodor Billroth managed what no previous surgeon had been able to: complete ablation of the larynx in a human
being, which quickly came to be known as “total laryngectomy”, without harmful
immediate consequences. Billroth dared what none before had done. He had come
to the conclusion that “the only way of saving life was to remove the entire
larynx.”
This first total ablation of the larynx,
preceded by a tracheotomy, was one of the great surprises of 19th century
surgery.
This was possible because of the prior
experimental study of laryngeal ablation performed in dogs by Vincent Czerny. The
French physician Henri Chouppe enthused: “when experimental studies lead to
practical results, one should hasten to do It”.
