 the total removal of the larynx ( total laryngectomy ) , performed in 1872 by the well - known viennese surgeon christian a. theodor billroth ( 18291894 ) , was an epoch - making event in the history of surgery and laryngology . 
 this paper presents the first surgeons who performed this operation . the first pole who performed a total laryngectomy ( 1877 ) was julian kosiski ( 18331914 ) , head of the surgical clinic of imperial university warsaw . 
 it was the 14th operation of this kind in the world . 
 several laryngectomies were carried out by franciszek ksawery jawdyski ( 18511896 ) , called the father of polish head and neck surgery , who was the first pole to excise a malignant neck cancer together with the lymph nodes . 
 the next total laryngectomies were performed by the following polish surgeons : jan mikulicz - radecki ( 18501905 ) , wadysaw h.s . 
 krajewski ( 18551907 ) , alfred obaliski ( 18431898 ) . 
 according to jan sdziak , by 1897 poland with 16 laryngectomies ( per 188 carried out ) had occupied the fourth position in the world . 
 the failures of the first laryngectomies were due to such factors as the ignorance of shock pathophysiology , the inability to ensure the patency of the airways during and after the operation , which would result in lung and mediastinum infections , massive haemorrhages and so on . 
 but the primary cause was the lack of constructive collaboration between the laryngologists and the surgeons . 