Completion Total Laryngectomy Ten Years After Near Total Laryngectomy for Radiorecurrent Cancer of the Glottis

Near total laryngectomy (NTL) is a safe alternative to total laryngectomy in salvaging lateralized radiation failures. A 65-year-old gentleman with radiorecurrent T1 vocal cord cancer was salvaged successfully by NTL. Ten years later, he presented with a strained shunt speech which was treated judiciously, with the aid of a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, by a (completion) total laryngectomy (TL), bilateral selective neck dissection, and pharyngeal resurfacing with pectoralis major myocutaneous (PMMC) flap. The patient is on close follow-up after the second salvage procedure, for 20 months without any locoregional disease recurrence. A high index of suspicion can clinch the diagnosis of a post-NTL recurrence in a disease-free patient on follow-up because of the excellent speech preservation and aspiration-free swallowing that is possible which can only be altered if the patient develops a recurrence or second primary.