Preliminary investigation of coblation for early glottic carcinoma

Abstract

To establish whether Coblation is a suitable modality for removal of early glottic carcinoma. Fourteen patients with early glottic carcinoma (Tis-T2) without lymph node metastasis underwent resection of laryngeal cancer lesions using transoral endoscopic coblation (TEC), without pre- or post-operative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. No severe complication such as bleeding and dyspnea occurred in the cases. Only mild postoperative pain happened to the patients. All patients could eat and pronounce on the surgery day. With following-up of 25 - 37 months, no recurrence was observed in 13 cases. One case, with poorly differentiated squamous cell lesion in the anterior commissure invading subglottic, recurred 3 months postoperatively. The patient received the re-resection of laryngeal lesion by coblation, but another recurrence happened to the patient 6 months postoperatively, and then was cured by partial laryngectomy, with recurrence-free survival 21 months postoperatively. The observation suggests that transoral endoscopic coblation is a reliable and safe modality for the resection of early glottic carcinoma.