Partial surgery of epitheliomas at the level of the glottis. An update

: Seven hundred and thirty three patients with glottic squamous cell carcinoma were treated with partial laryngeal surgery at our institution over a sixteen years period of time. Three hundred and ninety four patients were operated from 1972 through 1980 and three hundred and thirty three from 1980 through 1988. This retrospective study analyse local failure according to the surgical technique performed. Surgical technique was either a thyrotomy, a vertical partial laryngectomy or a supracricoid laryngectomy with cricohyoidoepiglottopexy. Among the 394 patients treated from 1972 through 1980, local failure was reported according to the T stage, the precise tumor location within each stage, the true vocal cord mobility and the surgical procedures. There was a diverse group of lesions within each T stage that responded differently to the surgical approaches. The differences in the local recurrence rates are discussed in terms of careful preoperative assessment and choice of surgical technique. This study support the premise that the choice of the surgical technique requires accurate preoperative assessment of tumor extend and laryngeal mobilities.