The place of conservation surgery for T3 laryngeal carcinomas with fixation

Although the traditional surgical treatment of T3 laryngeal carcinomas is total laryngectomy, we have obtained favorable survival results for selected cases with partial laryngectomy, as exemplified in the literature. Extending the indications up to ultimate limits by partial, but radical surgical techniques is the recent trend in the world, for the conservation surgery of laryngeal cancers. The primary treatment of T3 laryngeal cancers, instead of irradiation, should be surgical and, for select cases partial laryngectomy, depending on laryngeal embryological development and lymphatic drainage, may be carried out. We have performed partial laryngectomy with elective or therapeutic and radical or modified radical neck dissection for 43 T3 laryngeal carcinomas at the Department of Otolaryngology, Istanbul Medical Faculty, University of Istanbul in the years 1978-1991 and obtained 2, 3, and 5 years of survival rates, which are 89, 79.4, and 73%, respectively.