• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.201-205
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• 1996

Early detection of glottic cancer, facilitated by rigid telescopes or flexible fiberoptic laryngoscope in addition to sparse true vocal cord lymphatics, makes this a highly curable tumor in its early stage. Early glottic cancer has a high cure rate with only radiotherapy or conservative surgery. However complications such as mucositis with radiotherapy and voice complications with conservative surgery has raised recent interest in endolaryngeal laser cordectomy. Laser cordectomy can preserve phonatory function and avoid the complications such as mucositis of radiotherapy. To determine the effectiveness of laser cordectomy, the authors made a two year retrospective study of 23 early glottic cancer cases. Fourteen cases(60.9%) who underwent 1 to 3 endoscopic laser cordectomy with KTP-532 laser were cured with this procedure alone. Seven cases needed an additional radiotherapy and three cases needed therapy with salvage operation. We conclude that the endoscopic laser surgery is a good strategy for the properly selected glottic cancer.