72 cases of hemilaryngectomy operated in Kurume University Hospital from 1971 to 1990 were investigated. The following results were obtained.
1. The cumulative 5 year survival rate of hemilaryngectomy for laryngeal cancer was 80%, and determined 5 year survival rate was 93%.
2. The local recurrence occured in 5 out of 8 cases with supraglottic carcinoma, and in 7 of 64 cases with glottic carcinoma. The best candidates for hemilaryngectomy were glottic T2 cases and early glottic T3 cases.
3. Cases with poor vocal function were most frequent in the skin flap group and least frequent in the lip mucosa group.
4. The post-hemilaryngectomy vocal function is inferior to normal voice but close to the lower border of the normal voice.
