Partial endoscopic resections with CO2 laser in laryngeal cancer. I. Resection techniques

Abstract

The laser surgical technique as used in more than 250 laryngeal carcinomas since 1979 is described. The CO2 laser is always used as a cutting instrument and not to vaporize the tumour, since this would not enable a control of complete tumour removal. The vaporisation technique is used only in combination with the cutting technique for laser surgical debulking of large laryngeal tumours. Five cutting techniques are differentiated: 1) excisional biopsy; 2) excision of the tumour in several portions; 3) incision of large tumours for staging purposes; 4) palliative excision of primary tumours in inoperable lymph node metastases; 5) palliative reduction of large tumours (debulking). T1a vocal cord carcinomas and circumscribed carcinomas of the border of the epiglottis are resected by means of a so-called excisional biopsy. This means that the tumour is resected in toto with a small line of adjoining healthy tissue. For the removal of large carcinomas of the vocal cord, or of tumours that cross the anterior commissure, or of larger supraglottic tumours, an unusual technique is employed. The tumorous tissue is cut with the laser and resected in several fragments. This may seem to contradict current oncological principles and is only possible because of laser-specific tissue reactions. When using a modern micromanipulator (711 Acuspot, Sharplan, London; diameter of the laser beam: 0.25 mm at 400 mm working distance) at low power levels (1-2 watts) and continuous wave mode, very slight or no bleeding is caused on the surface of the dissected tissue allowing differentiation between tumour and healthy tissue with the operating microscope.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)