Objective: To explore the feasibility and the related surgical techniques of laryngeal function preservation in surgical treatment of posterior hypopharyngeal wall cancer.
Method: Thirty-five cases with posterior hypopharyngeal wall cancer were treated surgically. The methods of removing tumor and repairing surgical defects were depended on the extension of lesions. The laryngeal and pharyngeal function were rebuild by normal tissue preserved with lesions entirely removed. Twenty-seven cases were surgically treated with laryngeal functions preserved and eight cases total laryngectomy. The most of the cases received postoperative radiotherapy.
Result: The overall 3 and 5-year survival rates were 45.7% and 28.6%, respectively. 45.7% patients having laryngeal functions (voice, respiration and deglutition) completely restored and 31.4% partially restored(voice and deglutition). Among the died patients, nine cases died from cervical lymph node metastasis, ten cases died from local recurrence, twa cases died from lung metastasis, one cases died from cervical massive haemorrhage, twa cases died from hear disease and one died from ambiguous reason.
Conclusion: The preservative surgery is feasible for the selected posterior hypopharyngeal wall cancer cases. Choosing and following what is optimum from multiple feasible surgical methods is a prerequisite for improving the quality of life of the cases.