Rigid telescopy and contact endoscopy in the diagnosis and surgery of Reinke’s oedema: Clinical and histological assessment

Abstract

We focussed our attention on the use of both rigid telescopy and contact endoscopy in order to assess their effectiveness in the diagnosis and surgery of Reinke's oedema. Changes were observed in a sample of 40 patients, suffering from different stages of Reinke's oedema, who had undergone microlaryngoscopies. For the first time during our laryngological praxis, we discussed a number of parameters that appeared to be significant in the monitoring and detailed evaluation of this vocal fold disease. With contact endoscopy, during the early stages of the disease, the cells and nuclei of normal squamous layered epithelium continued to display uniform morphological features. The appearance of epithelial changes helps to distinguish between different stages of Reinke's oedema, which can be associated with severe inflammation or keratinisation. With latter-stage oedemas, the following was observed: various changes in the blood vessels of the glottis, which when viewed through the endoscope have an unusual "loop-like" or "branching" appearance, as well as elongated and varicose blood vessels, and the build-up of erythrocytes inside atypical capillaries. Both endoscope techniques are non-invasive and very appropriate for precisely diagnosing Reinke's oedema within a relatively short period of time. Rigid telescopy has the advantage of enabling the systematic observation of many details in the large area of both vocal fold mucosae, particularly when access to the larynx is difficult. This enables dynamic monitoring and immediate pathology consultations inside the operating theatre. The special contribution of contact endoscopy is that, both in vivo and in situ, it allows a detailed scanning and mapping to be performed of all cell changes and ofvascularisation throughout the entire mucosa surface. Video-assisted telescopy does not permit a completely first-rate surgical resection of Reinke's oedema, because of unsatisfactory control or insufficient stability of the instrument during the operation using the one-handed method.