Voice Outcome in Patients Treated With Endoscopic Laryngopharyngeal Surgery for Superficial Hypopharyngeal Cancer

Objectives Endoscopic laryngopharyngeal surgery (ELPS) is a minimally invasive transoral surgery that was developed to treat superficial larygo-pharyngeal cancer, in which a mucosal lesion is resected transorally while preserving deeper structures by subepithelial injection. The purpose of this retrospective study is to evaluate voice outcome in patients who underwent ELPS for superficial hypopharyngeal cancer. As important structures in producing voice, such as intrinsic laryngeal muscles, their fascia, and recurrent laryngeal nerve, are located in the medial side of the piriform sinus and the postcricoid region of the hypopharynx, we focused on patients with cancer lesions involving these regions.