Surgical treatment of laryngotracheal stenosis by a trough technique

Many methods have been tried and reported in the treatment of laryngotracheal stenosis. Among them, a trough technique seems universal at present. To date, we have tried several methods of this technique, but each method had its own demerits. We used, as a cartilagenous framework, a homograft or tracheal ring cartilages for the last four cases of laryngotracheal stenosis. These tracheal ring cartilages were resected from relatively young patients with laryngeal carcinoma. Total laryngectomy was done just below the level of the fourth tracheal ring, then the fourth tracheal ring was resected and stored in 70% alcohol. The cartilage was used after it was made certain pathologically that there was no invasion of carcinoma at the third tracheal ring level. The operative procedure of this trough technique is as follows. In the first stage, a trough is created at the stenosed region and the trough is maintained by placing a Quick Set Silicone (Q.S.S.) stent mold over it. While waiting for scar formation of the tissues surrounding the trachea, the second stage reconstruction is performed four weeks after the first. The trough is closed with hinged skin flaps on both sides, and the reserved tracheal ring cartilages are sutured every 5 mm onto the outer surface of the hinged skin flaps to make a cartilagenous framework. The neck is closed with advanced neck skin flaps. A more ideal tracheal lumen is created by this technique. Our four patients are doing well two years or more after the operation.