(713) Laryngeal Tissue-Engineered Scaffold Usage for Various Laryngeal Pathologies: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Moderate to severe cases of trauma to the larynx often require surgical reconstruction, but current methods are limited by donor morbidity and poor graft integration, as well as the common drawback of lifelong immunosuppression. Tissue-engineered scaffolds present an innovative avenue to resolving laryngeal trauma, as they mimic extracellular matrices, promote vascularization, and can regenerate native tissue while mimicking its functionality. This study aims to identify the most effective scaffold material and cell source combination to achieve favorable outcomes.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted using the keywords “tissue engineered scaffold for laryngeal reconstruction” in PubMed. Studies focusing on functional and structural laryngeal repair were selected manually and were excluded on various criteria, yielding 17 articles.

Results: A variety of scaffold materials were investigated, including hydrogels, fibrin gels, collagen, or decellularized extracellular matrices, and synthetic materials such as PCL-based constructs. Scaffolds seeded with mesenchymal stem cells or autologous chondrocytes showed greater improvements in functional tissue regeneration. The use of growth factors proved promising but yielded varied efficacies in vivo. Main barriers to functional recovery remained fibrotic tissue with a lack of vascularization and innervation.

Conclusions: Natural polymer-based scaffold materials emerged as the ideal candidate for laryngeal reconstruction, especially when seeded with mesenchymal stem cells. This combination yielded the most functional recovery, with increased phonation and decreased fibrotic tissue. With future efforts focused on overcoming limitations, from fibrotic tissue, tissue engineered scaffolds hold great potential for revolutionizing laryngeal reconstruction.