Reconstruction of the trachea by means of a segmental prosthesis is a complicated problem, which has not been completely resolved so far. The authors present a brief historical review of attempts to bridge the gap by different types of prostheses Evon Neville's silicone prostheses are not well tolerated on a long-term basis and its is thus important to look for other materials for the manufacture of an "ideal" tracheal prosthesis. (ur synthetic prosthesis made from poly/ARMA/is very well tolerated, similarly as silicone prostheses.
Despite this the authors produced in 1993 a new type of prosthesis, based on antigenicity-deprived heterologous pig tissue. Trials with this prosthesis will be evaluated in a subsequent paper.