Rakesh B. S1, Bharathi M. B2, Babu A. R3
OBJECTIVES
To assess the thyroid gland involvement and the need for thyroidectomy in advanced laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinomas that require total laryngectomy.
METHODS
The study included 47 patients who had undergone total laryngectomy along with ipsilateral hemithyroidectomy or total thyroidectomy for primary squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx and/or hypopharynx. The laryngectomy specimen and thyroid specimen were studied histologically with multiple serial sections.
RESULTS
Two (7.7%) of the laryngeal carcinoma patients had thyroid gland invasion and two (9.5%) hypopharyngeal carcinoma patients had thyroid gland invasion. Four patients (15.4%) had evidence of thyroid cartilage invasion in the laryngeal carcinoma group. There were only three cases (14.3%) with thyroid cartilage invasion among the hypopharyngeal carcinoma patients.
CONCLUSION
To prevent unnecessary excision of the thyroid gland which may lead to important complications such as hypothyroidism, we suggest saving the thyroid gland during laryngectomy except in laryngeal carcinoma cases with subglottic or transglottic extension and advanced hypopharyngeal tumours.
