Laryngeal stenosis, a complication after laryngeal cancer surgery

Surgical treatment of laryngeal cancer has a history of more than 100 years. It is considered the first choice for laryngeal cancer treatment due to its short treatment course, strong radical effect, small impact on adjacent parts and the whole body after surgery, and rapid recovery of patients after treatment. At present, with the development of clinical experience, when laryngeal cancer is confined to one anatomical area, it is not necessary to remove the whole larynx, and partial laryngectomy has been widely carried out.

Strictly speaking, laryngeal cancer surgery is divided into partial laryngectomy and total laryngectomy. For partial laryngectomy, its main complications generally include bleeding, infection (laryngeal fistula), aspiration, laryngeal polyps, laryngeal stenosis, etc. Today we will focus on laryngeal stenosis.

Laryngeal stenosis is caused by improper repair methods. Hypopharynx stenosis is a common complication of laryngeal cancer patients after laryngectomy and radiotherapy. The incidence of hypopharyngeal stenosis in 28 patients with total laryngectomy in the affiliated hospital of a university medical school from 1978 to 1979 was 12 cases of hypopharyngeal stenosis among 21 cases with local complications. The incidence of hypopharyngeal stenosis is higher in patients with lesions in the piriform sinus than in patients with lesions in the glottis or supraglottis. Therefore, choosing the correct and reasonable surgical method and repair method is the key to avoiding laryngeal stenosis. Therefore, when facing patients with a large range of laryngectomy during surgery, we anticipate that patients may have laryngeal stenosis after surgery, and we should choose to add appropriate laryngeal dilators during surgery to prevent laryngeal stenosis after surgery.