Complaints and Complications of Microlaryngoscopic Surgery

To examine the postoperative complaints and complications of microlaryngoscopic surgery (MLS) performed at a facility specializing in voice disorders.

The subjects were 550 patients who underwent MLS over a period of 2 years and 6 months starting in 2014; they were investigated retrospectively based on surgical and medical records.

Postoperatively, some complaints and complications were identified in 66.0% of the subjects; sore throat was reported by 40.0%, which was the highest rate of complaints among all subjects. Tongue-related complications (numbness of the tongue, taste disorder, tongue pain, and hypoglossal nerve palsy) were observed in 16.9% of all cases, which was a relatively high rate. A median duration of 4 days was required to recover from tongue numbness (1.0 and 11.0 days for the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively), while recovery from a taste disorder involved 4 days (4.0 and 14.3 days); a relatively long period was required for healing. However, 25% of taste disorders and 21% of tongue numbness cases required more than 2 weeks to recover; all cases recovered eventually. Almost all complaints and complications were temporary. Moreover, only three cases (0.55%) of tooth damage were irreversible. No other serious complications were observed.

In previous reports, we examined the complications of MLS conducted by phonosurgery specialists at our hospital, which is a facility that specializes in voice disorders. An unexpectedly large number of patients complained of some symptoms after the operation. Because tongue-related complications tended to have a long healing duration, we think that preoperative explanations are important. We believe that the results of this study provide new insights into the incidence of complications and complaints after MLS and the healing duration.