[Research progress in tracheal prostheses].

It is difficult to perform a primary anastomosis when a pathological trachea is over-lengnthing resected. Thus the tracheal prosthesis is required to apply in the airway reconstruction. Severe defects in the early tracheal prosthesis result in failure of surgery. Great progress has been achieved in recent years as new materials and tissue-engineering techniques are applied. These efforts bring a bright future to clinical applications of tracheal prostheses.