Enrich De Campora, MD, M. Radici, MD

Subglottic and glottic- subglottic cancers represent an extremely severe disease because of late diagnosis and frequent extralaryngeal and nodal spreading. Elective surgical treatment is represented by total laryngectomy even in the case of small cancers. In those cases, functional glottic-subglottic laryngectomy according to Bartual-Serafini can be successfully employed. The purpose of this paper is to present our experienced concerning functional surgery in hypoglottic cancer. The operation consists of the resection of both vocal cords and the subglottic region (with the first 4 or 5 tracheal rings), followed by reconstruction of the larynx by tracheal thyroid approximation. The surgical technique is illustrated and our experience is discussed.