Progress in laryngeal surgery

✍ Scribed by Jonathan C. Smith; Eugene N. Myers

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 171 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1043-3074
• DOI: 10.1002/hed.10140

✦ Synopsis

This review of function-preserving surgery for glottic and supraglottic carcinoma offers a surgical perspective that should be interpreted in the context of contemporary trends toward nonsurgical treatment. Just as advances in our knowledge, skills, and instrumentation currently permit preservation of functions formerly removed with total laryngectomy, parallel advances in the application of radiotherapy have also occurred. Debate appropriately continues to address surgical versus nonsurgical treatment efficacy. Considerations leading to a management choice include survival statistics, anticipated need for salvage treatment, toxicity of treatment, cost of treatment, and quality of life. Despite the capacity to offer the function-preserving surgical treatments described in this article, surgical management has decreased in frequency in the United States as treatment with radiotherapy has increased. In this review, Drs. Smith and Myers offer a rational approach to the surgical treatment of laryngeal cancer as it has evolved to its current practice at the University of Pittsburgh.