Larynx preservation in surgical treatment of cervical esophageal cancer - combined procedure of laryngeal suspension and cricopharyngeal myotomy

From July 1994 to July 1998, a larynx-preserving procedure was performed on 10 out of 22 (45%) patients in the surgical treatment of hypopharyngeal an d cervical esophageal cancer. At first, all 10 patients were treated with c oncurrent radiochemotherapy with cisplatin (10 mg/m(2)/day), 5-fluorouracil (500 mg/m(2)/day) and radiation (2 Gy/day) five times per week for 4 weeks , After preoperative radiochemotherapy, the larynx-preserving procedure, co mbining laryngeal suspension and cricopharyngeal myotomy, was performed. Th e operative and hospital mortality rate was 0%, The incidence of post-opera tive morbidity with minor complications was 70% in the present study. Laryn geal speech and oral food intake were preserved in all patients after this procedure. The new larynx-preserving procedure combining laryngeal suspensi on and cricopharyngeal myotomy for cervical esophageal cancer is a favorabl e operative method for retaining intelligible laryngeal speech and good foo d intake.