Abstract
Of the 850 patients who visited our division with previously untreated carcinoma of the larynx between 1962 and 1988, 68 received partial laryngectomy as the first treament. Of these 68 cases, 50 patients with more than five-year follow-up were studied relative to the local control, cervical metastases, and survival. These patients consisted of 34 cases who underwent vertical partial laryngectomy for glottic carcinoma and 16 cases who received horizontal partial laryngectomy for supraglottic carcinoma. In the vertical partial laryngectomy group, four patients developed local recurrence between three to 36 months after the first surgery. All these cases were salvaged with total laryngectomy. Cervical metastases were observed in four cases between two to 11 months after laryngectomy and were successfully treated with neck dissection in all cases. The five-year crude survival rate was 88.2% (30/34). All deaths resulted from causes other than laryngeal carcinoma. For the 16 patients with horizontal partial laryngectomy, the five-year crude survival rate was 81% (13/16). No local recurrece was observed in this group. Three cases developed cervical metastases between two and ten months after laryngectomy.
