EPIDEMIOLOGIC AND CLINICAL RELIEF ON HYPERPLASTIC LESIONS OF THE LARYNX

Chronic hyperplastic laryngopathies are considered precancerous lesion s because of their possible transformation in time into malignant epit helial neoplasia. We studied 130 patients affected by ''hyperplastic l aryngeal lesions'' according to their semeiological characteristics. T he lesions affected the vocal cords in 127 cases and in only 3 cases t he ventricular bands. All patients underwent microlaryngoscopy while u nder general anesthesia and were treated by limited excision (37%) or total stripping (63%). The histomorphological classification by Kleins asser (7) was used. The following clinical checks showed that 30 out o f 48 patients (62.5%) treated by partial stripping recovered; in ii th e lesion relapsed (23%) and in 7 cases (14.5%) a carcinoma appeared. O f those cases treated by total stripping 65 patients (79%) recovered, 12 (15%) relapsed and 5 (6%) showed carcinoma. In conclusion we notice d the appearance of a malignant lesion after surgery in 12 out of 130 cases (9.2%). The cancerization was about 3 times more frequent in pat ients with histological results of degree II than in those with degree I (17% vs. 6%). Our study confirms that the laryngeal hyperplastic le sion represents a possible passage to cancer in a limited number of ca ses (<10%), but with a triple probability for degree II dysplasia in r espect to degree I. The patients affected by dyskeratosis, regardless of type of lesion, need a regular follow-up and immediate radical surg ery because of the frequent incidence of relapse.