Endoscopic posterior ventricular cordectomy with contact diode laser: how I do it.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of bilateral vocal fold paralysis is mainly surgical and several procedures can be used to guarantee adequate breathing. Furthermore, other causes of the narrowing of the natural airways could coexist and the treatment should consider all of them. METHODS: A supraglottic extension of posterior cordectomy to the false homolateral chord is described, which provides a further widening of the airway while maintaining acceptable voice quality. CONCLUSION: Endoscopic posterior ventricular cordectomy performed by contact diode laser may be a viable and safe option, especially in those patients who present bilateral vocal fold paralysis associated with various degrees of laryngospasm.

Operative technique: Tracheal resection and anastomosis in a revision surgery.

Tracheal stenosis is an uncommon pathological condition in which the lumen of the trachea is reduced. Within its management an adequate preoperative workup is crucial to determine the most appropriate procedure for each patient. In this scenario tracheal resection and anastomosis is a viable approach, as a procedure in which part of the trachea is removed and then restored with a tension-free anastomosis. It is usually indicated for extensive and high-grade lesions or when previous endoscopic procedures had failed. The patient here presented had already undergone a balloon dilatation twice and a tracheal resection and referred to our clinic with a residual tracheal stenosis graded Myer-Cotton 3 involving three tracheal rings. We here illustrate step-by-step the surgical procedure and highlight a peculiar way to perform the anastomosis, especially in a revision surgery.

Nuclear expression of onco-suppressors nm23-H1 and maspin are associated with lower recurrence rate in laryngeal carcinoma.

PURPOSE: The main aim of the study was to preliminarily investigate the possibly related role of nuclear onco-suppressors maspin and nm23-H1, a metastasis suppressor, in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Maspin expression pattern and nuclear nm23-H1 expression were ascertained in 62 consecutive LSCCs. RESULTS: Recurrence rate was significantly lower in patients with a nuclear maspin pattern of expression; nuclear nm23-H1 expression was significantly lower in patients who experienced disease recurrence. Disease free survival (DFS) was significantly longer in patients with maspin nuclear pattern or with nuclear nm23-H1 expression ≥10%. A significant association was found between nuclear nm23-H1 expression and maspin pattern of expression in LSCC. KNN discriminant analysis considered N status, maspin sub-cellular localization and nuclear nm23-H1 expression. The selected variables' accuracy in terms of relapse was 82%. Positive predictive accuracy was 100%, and negative predictive accuracy 79%. CONCLUSIONS: Nuclear nm23-H1 expression and maspin pattern, also in association, show promise as recurrence indicators in LSCC. Further studies are needed to shed more light on the nm23-H1 mechanism of action in LSCC and thus find ways to restore nm23-H1 loss. These preliminary findings suggest that re-activating maspin functions might represent an important goal in the treatment of advanced LSCC.