Artikel
Difficult laryngectomy in a patient with transglottic carcinoma and severe ankylosing spondylitis
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Veröffentlicht: | 22. September 2005 |
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Objective: Diagnosis and treatment of laryngeal carcinoma are difficult in patients with flexion deformity of the cervical spine. A case of transglottic carcinoma combined with marked ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is presented.
Case: A 52-year old man with an eight-year history of AS complained about hoarseness since ten month. Laryngoscopy revealed a bilateral tumourous lesion of the vocal cords and ventricular folds with normal cord movement. Microlaryngoscopy was difficult due to severe flexion deformity of the cervical spine. Flexible endoscopy with biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of a transglottic squamous cell carcinoma. There was no distant metastasis. We planned a total laryngectomy with neckdissection on both sides. Preoperatively we discussed improvements of the tumour exposure. Extension osteotomy of the cervical spine was too riskful considering possible neurological damage. We suggested median mandibulotomy to improve the upper laryngeal exposure. The operation was difficult but resection of the larynx was achieved without median mandibulotomy.
Conclusion: In this case laryngectomy and neckdissection were successfully performed using the classical approach despite severe AS.