Abstract
We developed transoral videolaryngoscopic surgery (TOVS) as a minimally invasive surgical strategy for supraglottic laryngeal, oropharyngeal, and hypopharyngeal cancers. Here, we review 19 cases with neoplastic lesion of the tongue base who underwent TOVS in our institution. The main tumor-localized subsites were the oropharyngeal lateral wall in 11 cases, the oropharyngeal anterior wall in 5 cases and the supraglottis in 3 cases. Tumor stage included 3 T1 tumors, 9 T2 lesions, and 7 T3 lesions. There were no T4 tumors in this series. There were 10 patients who had no nodal metastasis and 9 patients with positive nodal metastases. During the study period, 11 patients (57.9%) underwent neck dissection, 1 (5.3%) required tracheotomy，and 8 (42.1%) received conventional radiotherapy. No patient underwent reconstructive surgery. The median follow-up period of all cases and survival cases were 35 months and 25 months, respectively. The 2-year crude survival, 2-year disease-free survival, and 2-year local control rate were all 100%. In 94.7% of cases, patients had normal swallowing function, identified as stage 0 to 2 on the Functional Outcome Swallowing Scale (FOSS). TOVS for neoplastic lesions of the tongue base contributes to functional preservation while maintaining cancer curability if the indication is considered carefully.
