Innovations for head and neck open surgery in China

As the development of chemoradiotherapy and laser surgery, the proportion of open surgeries was declining in recent years. Compared to the former two therapeutic measures, open surgery has disadvantages in perioperative complications. However, the affirmative curative effect of open surgery is still not comparable, especially for moderate and late stage tumors.

In China, the medical insurance is more inclined to surgery during treatment, the fee of which would be covered more. And the Chinese people value the efficiency of treatment. They expect a 'surgery' to radically resect a tumor. Therefore, open surgery still accounts for a great portion in head and neck cancer treatment. And what is more important is that the patient require more in radical cure, even in the late or recurrent cases.

As one of earliest departments of otolaryngology in China, our surgical team, leading by Prof. Wang, Prof. Luan and Prof. Pan, dedicated in innovations of head and neck surgery since 1970 s. Here are some of our modified procedures.

For hypopharyngeal carcinoma, we use a novel trans-paraglottic space approach of partial laryngectomy. Together with pectoris flap, this improved procedure is indicative for almost T1-T3 stage tumors. This approach take advantage of the connective paraglottic space. The deep tumor margin could easily be identified after cutting through anterior 1/3 of thyroid cartilage. Entering the pharyngeal cavity near arytenoid cartilage, the tumor in the piriform recess could be easily be retracted laterally. With a direct view of tumor, resection with most preservation of mucosa turned to be feasible.

Publication History

Publication Date:
18 April 2018 (online)