Voice-sparing cricotracheal resection

The treatment of benign subglottic stenoses can be challenging. It requires an experienced multidisciplinary team. It is important to define the aetiology, severity and number/types of any pretreatments of the stenosis. Short-term symptom relief can be achieved with endoscopic techniques; however, this relief comes at the price of a high likelihood of restenosis, which often is more severe than the original stenosis. Successful long-term treatment of subglottic stenosis can be achieved by surgical resection in most cases. Cricotracheal resection is the established standard technique to treat subglottic stenosis. In patients with advanced disease, it can be extended by a dorsal mucosectomy, a lateral cricoplasty or a partial anterior laryngeal split in order to remove the entire diseased area. In this video tutorial, we describe a modification of cricotracheal resection. In this technique for an extended resection, the cricoid arch is partially preserved. In addition to restoring sufficient airway width, this modification has the advantage that the cricothyroid joint remains intact. Therefore, the reduction in the pitch and volume of the voice associated with the standard resection techniques is avoided.